CONSTRAIN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does constrain mean? 

• CONSTRAIN (verb)
  The verb CONSTRAIN has 3 senses:

1. compel to behave in a certain way

2. to close within bounds, or otherwise limit or deprive of free movement

3. severely restrict in scope or extent

  Familiarity information: CONSTRAIN used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONSTRAIN (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they constrain    ... he / she / it constrains   
Past simple: constrained   
Past participle: constrained   
-ing form: constraining   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Compel to behave in a certain way

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

constrain; enforce; impose

Context example:

duty constrains one to act often contrary to one's desires or inclinations

Hypernyms (to "constrain" is one way to...):

compel; obligate; oblige (force somebody to do something)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

To close within bounds, or otherwise limit or deprive of free movement

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

confine; constrain; hold; restrain

Context example:

The terrorists held the journalists for ransom

Hypernyms (to "constrain" is one way to...):

disable; disenable; incapacitate (make unable to perform a certain action)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "constrain"):

bind; tie down; tie up; truss (secure with or as if with ropes)

fetter; shackle (restrain with fetters)

enchain (restrain or bind with chains)

pinion; shackle (bind the arms of)

impound; pound (place or shut up in a pound)

pound; pound up (shut up or confine in any enclosure or within any bounds or limits)

fold; pen up (confine in a fold, like sheep)

ground (confine or restrict to the ground)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Severely restrict in scope or extent

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

constrain; stiffen; tighten; tighten up

Context example:

stiffen the regulations

Hypernyms (to "constrain" is one way to...):

bound; confine; limit; restrict; throttle; trammel (place limits on (extent or amount or access))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

 Context examples 

The team also used the SPHERE observations to constrain Hygiea’s size, putting its diameter at just over 430 km.

(ESO Telescope Reveals What Could be the Smallest Dwarf Planet Yet in the Solar System, ESO)

Unlike Jupiter’s GRS, the Neptune spot is not as tightly constrained by numerous alternating wind jets (seen as bands in Jupiter’s atmosphere).

(Hubble Sees Neptune's Mysterious Shrinking Storm, NASA)

Microfluidics deals with the behaviour and control of fluids in a constrained, typically sub-millimetre space.

(New approach promises better anaemia detection, SciDev.Net)

Some activate immune responses; others constrain immune responses.

(Autoimmune Disease Super-Regulators Uncovered, NIH)

NOTE(S): The DefinedObservationResult class can be used to represent defined ranges for contingencies by constraining the result attribute from ANY to IVLPQ, for instance, or any other range value.

(Defined Observation Result, NCI Thesaurus/BRIDG)

Days supply is not allowed as a prescribed quantity for eRx. (Dispensed quantity from claims likely constrained to these values).

(NCPDP Quantity Unit of Measure Terminology, NCI Thesaurus)

He told me “yes” by a constrained gesture; and when I had bidden him enter, he did not obey me without a searching backward glance into the darkness of the square.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Oxidative Regulation involves cellular and biochemical mechanisms that localize and control oxidation/reduction reactions, or that constrain their byproducts, in order to maintain cellular health and homeostasis.

(Oxidative Regulation, NCI Thesaurus)

The extent to which it can generate income may be constrained, or the use of those profits may be restricted.

(Nonprofit Organization, NCI Thesaurus)

A data type comprised of numbers with no fractional part that are constrained to positive numbers as well as zero.

(Non-Negative Integer Data Type, NCI Thesaurus)