Wiktionary
prep.phr. Under restraint or control.
WordNet
adv. unable to act freely; "he held the enemy's armies in check" [syn: in restraint, under control]
Usage examples of "in check".
Her face crumpled, then seemed to swell from the pressure of all the emotion she was trying to keep in check.
A man can't help wondering, no, but it's another matter entirely to fail to keep your tongue in check, eh?
It hadn't been so bad when Allan Grieve had been alive - he'd kept his wife's eccentricities in check.
She waited a beat, straining to hold her own snapping temper in check.
The fatigue, the headache, the simmering emotions held ruthlessly in check.
Some of the anger she'd held in check during the questioning leaked through.
Ritser Brughelwas a monster, a monster barely held in check by the Podmaster system.