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What is "constrain"

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constrain
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
constrain
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
less
▪ Finally, these books are less constrained and more cynical in their criticism of science than those written by nonscientists.
▪ They enjoyed sophisticated pleasures, less constrained than elsewhere, which seemed to purists appallingly perverse.
▪ For the late fifth and early sixth centuries, however, he was less constrained.
▪ Fundholding practitioners would be less constrained in their clinical decision making and patients could anticipate more choice and improvements in services.
more
▪ The detailed are more constrained and continuous with the plot.
▪ But affirmative action is clearly going to be a more constrained remedy in future years than in past decades.
▪ The more constrained the grammar the greater the reduction in the number of incorrect partial solutions.
▪ The factor price equalization set is now, however, more constrained.
▪ But workers' influence has been more constrained than these provisions might suggest.
severely
▪ It is also interesting to note that often they are severely constrained.
▪ But they are severely constrained by the time-table of forty-minute periods.
■ NOUN
action
▪ Now what is constraining my action here?
▪ Other sorts of things can constrain my actions too, of course.
activity
▪ Sixthly, the role of prudence in constraining the activities of states especially when there was a perceived balance of power.
■ VERB
feel
▪ You could take Richard anywhere too but you would feel constrained to keep explaining he was a genius.
▪ Because they are unsure of their male identities, they feel constrained to prove them continually.
▪ Black feels constrained by the threat of xe8 to capture the white rook which has been en prise for nine consecutive moves.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
be/feel constrained to do sth
▪ I feel constrained to tell the truth.
▪ Alternatively, the collective good is seen as paramount, and individual freedom must be constrained to achieve that collective good.
▪ Because they are unsure of their male identities, they feel constrained to prove them continually.
▪ Mr. Davis felt constrained to accept that such a case might be within the purview of the legislation.
▪ Republicans who used to back it because the president liked it will no longer feel constrained to do so.
▪ You could take Richard anywhere too but you would feel constrained to keep explaining he was a genius.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Poor economies abroad may constrain demand for U.S. exports.
▪ The bill actually constrains the legislature from doing what they are elected to do.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ However, a real plant will be constrained by the amount of already existing plant material and its needs.
▪ In the boiler overhaul, for example, Taylor found that a worker lost much time because of his constrained position.
▪ Nature abhors the superfluous, yet is constrained to produce the seemingly extravagant.
▪ They assume, that is, that the principles of analogy and local interpretation constrain their experience.
▪ They have also been constrained by Britain's geographic location and limited resources.
▪ Third, as a government becomes less committed to democracy, the freedom and independence of the media are increasingly constrained.
▪ Wealth, however, is not similarly constrained.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Constrain

Constrain \Con*strain"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Constrained; p. pr. & vb. n. Constraining.] [OF. constraindre, F. contrainde, L. constringere; con- + stringere to draw tight. See Strain, and. cf. Constrict, Constringe.]

  1. To secure by bonds; to chain; to bond or confine; to hold tightly; to constringe.

    He binds in chains The drowsy prophet, and his limbs constrains.
    --Dryden.

    When winter frosts constrain the fields with cold.
    --Dryden.

  2. To bring into a narrow compass; to compress.

    How the strait stays the slender waist constrain.
    --Gay.

  3. To hold back by force; to restrain; to repress.

    My sire in caves constrains the winds.
    --Dryden.

  4. To compel; to force; to necessitate; to oblige.

    The love of Christ constraineth us.
    --2. Cor. v. 14.

    I was constrained to appeal unto C[ae]sar.
    --Acts xxviii. 19.

  5. To violate; to ravish. [Obs.]
    --Shak.

  6. To produce in such a manner as to give an unnatural effect; as, a constrained voice.

    Syn: To compel; force; drive; impel; urge; press.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
constrain

early 14c., constreyen, from stem of Old French constreindre (Modern French contraindre) "restrain, control," from Latin constringere "to bind together, tie tightly, fetter, shackle, chain," from com- "together" (see com-) + stringere "to draw tight" (see strain (v.)). Related: Constrained; constraining.

Wiktionary
constrain

vb. 1 (context transitive English) To force physically, by strong persuasion or pressurize; to compel; to oblige. 2 (context transitive English) To keep within close bounds; to confine. 3 (context transitive English) To reduce a result in response to limited resources.

WordNet
constrain

  1. v. hold back [syn: restrain, encumber, cumber]

  2. restrict; "Tighten the rules"; "stiffen the regulations" [syn: stiffen, tighten, tighten up]

Usage examples of "constrain".

He was a big man, fatter even than Acta, and he wore strangely constraining clothes: a tightly sewn jacket and trousers, heavy leather shoes, a hat stuffed with straw.

But at their wildest, the Bacchic rituals were a temporary, constrained release from the real world.

Also if the chords and bass line are constructed in such a way as to create their own separate melodies, then this will constrain the notes not to be moved from their location within those melodies.

Even as it is not the specialist in biology that still maintains the Darwinian theory of Natural Selection, but the non-professional and the amateur, even so the specialist acquainted with the original sources, and the explorer, possessing first hand knowledge, asserts a decline, through history, from purer to less spiritual faiths, while the bias of the evolutionist, who has no first hand knowledge of the sources constrains him to begin his scheme of religion with animism and fetish-worship.

The mayor, constraining himself to keep awake a little longer, gave Domini away, while Suzanne dropped tears into a pocket-handkerchief edged with rose-coloured frilling, the gift of Monsieur Helmuth.

Instead of securing his fidelity, these favors served only to inflame the ambition of the Thracian peasant, who deemed his fortune inadequate to his merit, as long as he was constrained to acknowledge a superior.

We are constrained to confess it to be true, that men, in this Age of Iron, worship gods of wood and iron and brass, the work of their own hands.

Only the upper-class women were constrained by their status into ladylike homebound activities.

We are in effect dealing with a species full of fanaticsand fanatics, by definition, are not to be constrained by threats of force which would deter more rational individuals.

Alexandre moved constantly in small jerks, the restlessness of his body at once caused and constrained by the pain of his wound.

He was constrained to drive out visiting with my Lady Lowestoft, and went, smothering a yawn.

Platonic dialogue to attack philosophers, parallels the satyric release from constraining social conventions.

By merging with the flow of life, by tuning into the patterns of our destiny and the rhythms of nature, we are able to rise above the constraining forces of our logical intellect.

Incomparably the most valuable acquisition which the American Catholic Church has received has been the company of devoted and gifted young men, deeply imbued with the principles and sentiments of the High-church party in the Episcopal Church, who have felt constrained in conscience and in logic to take the step, which seems so short, from the highest level in the Anglican Church into the Roman, and who, organized into the Order of the Paulist Fathers, have exemplified in the Roman Church so many of the highest qualities of Protestant preaching.

The Executive approval was given by me to the resolution mentioned, and it is now by a closer attention and a fuller knowledge of facts that I feel constrained to recommend a reconsideration of the subject.