to rein in
53
4.6
- phrasal verb
- /reɪn ɪn/
:
contener
- I learned that I am a creative and I very much need people to rein me in on that element.
- efforts to rein in
- try to rein in
- attempt to rein in
You know, I think holding that job can make people rein in their vision a lot.
- You know, I think holding that job can make people rein in their vision a lot.
- NIMCO offered the following traffic light strategy to rein in the chatter.
- It's still live, but they have reined it in a lot, so this could not happen again.
- So I would personally, I would just be reining in all of that.
- Mask up social distance, and let's rein this thing in before evolution does what it does best.
- And then the government and other forces cracking down to rein that in.
- As Alex tried to rein him in, Kanye kept repeating, I love Nazis, I love Hitler.
- And when we say reining in spending and cutting spending, it's real cuts, not Washington cuts.
- Cognition is reflective, and that contributes to us thinking of emotions as something that need to be reined in or controlled.
Examples
-
Officers have struggled for years to rein in the violence.
-
I can always rein him in later.
-
It's still live, but they have reined it in a lot, so this could not happen again.
-
You have to rein him in.
-
You really need to learn to rein it in a little bit.
-
So you have to rein in the Congress's spending, which has caused this.
-
Moreover, it was again time to use congressional oversight to rein in the agency.
Academic text (2009) -
A slate of conservatives won office, aiming to rein in spending so they could cut taxes.
Academic text (1997) -
Elsewhere, however, communities are still struggling to rein in reactive nitrogen.
Academic text (2012) -
The teacher needed to rein in the students' excitement during the assembly.
Synonyms
104
3.7
Stop something from growing or spreading
86
4.6
Hold a person or thing so it cannot move freely
73
3.5
To limit or control something to stop it getting worse
69
4.9
To control and hold back people or things
68
3.0
To make something less wild or strong
64
5.6
To limit what someone can do or how they can act
37
5.5
To bring a person or thing under control, often by force
22
3.2
To keep something low and stop it from getting bigger
13
5.3
Take strong action to stop something bad or illegal
5
7.5
To reduce or control how much of something is allowed
To stop or slow progress by controlling it, like a rider pulling the straps that guide a horse
Antonyms
How Controlling
63
3.8
18
4.2
53
4.6
∞
2.1
34
4.4
∞
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to control or limit' is directly derivable from combining 'rein' (an instrument or method for guiding/control) with 'in' (toward or within bounds): together they evoke pulling something back or keeping it within limits. This compositional metaphor follows normal English particle-verb patterns and is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the meaning.
Etymology
The phrasal verb rein in comes from riding a horse: when you pull the rein and bring the horse in, you slow or stop it to control it. So today rein in means 'to control' or 'to limit' someone or something.