1. Word finder
  2. Word definitions
  3. constrained

Find the word definition

What is "constrained"

Crossword clues for constrained

constrained
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
constrained
adjective
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Judge Leval was constrained by an earlier decision of the court.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Duckham is a much more hapless figure: rather a constrained Everyman, almost a bore in fact.
▪ If perception has to be triggered off by what is actually there, then it is constrained to be true.
▪ It is constrained only by Ethernet.
▪ It is true for intra-generational talk as well that speakers are not constrained to use Creole to respond to a Creole utterance.
▪ 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.
▪ Some one who could be trusted with confidences, give advice, and yet not be constrained and influenced by being your parent.
▪ The more highly constrained and ritualised the genre, the more likely we are to be able to identify norms.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Constrained

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.

Constrained

Constrained \Con*strained"\, a. Marked by constraint; not free; not voluntary; embarrassed; as, a constrained manner; a constrained tone.

Wiktionary
constrained

  1. keep#Verb within close bounds; confined. v

  2. (en-past of: constrain)

WordNet
constrained

adj. lacking spontaneity; not natural; "a constrained smile"; "forced heartiness"; "a strained smile" [syn: forced, strained]

Usage examples of "constrained".

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

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.

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.

Every controversy amongst the sworn confederates shall be determined by some of the sagest of their number, and if any one shall challenge their judgment, then shall he be constrained to obey it by the rest.

The Sergeantcy was then offered to me, but as I had no accident policy, I was constrained to decline the honor.

Since it has been found that obsessing spirits are sensitive to pain, I am constrained to suggest that such cures as announced by the Trenton Hospital may, at least in part, be due to the fact that intruding spirits were dislodged, by dental or surgical interference.

Shapieron used a system that constrained superdense masses to move in closed paths at relativistic speeds, which generated high rates of change of gravitic potential and created a matter-annihilation zone that powered the stress field.

Pertinax, who modestly represented the meanness of his extraction, and pointed out several noble senators more deserving than himself of the empire, was constrained by their dutiful violence to ascend the throne, and received all the titles of Imperial power, confirmed by the most sincere vows of fidelity.

The bushveld is at this season of the year unhealthy both for man and beast, so that for the sake of their herds, their families, and themselves the burghers were constrained to descend into the open veld.