NARROW-MINDED

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does narrow-minded mean? 

• NARROW-MINDED (adjective)
  The adjective NARROW-MINDED has 3 senses:

1. capable of being shocked

2. lacking tolerance or flexibility or breadth of view

3. rigidly adhering to a particular sect or its doctrines

  Familiarity information: NARROW-MINDED used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• NARROW-MINDED (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Capable of being shocked

Synonyms:

narrow-minded; shockable

Sense 2

Meaning:

Lacking tolerance or flexibility or breadth of view

Synonyms:

narrow; narrow-minded

Context example:

narrow opinions

Similar:

close-minded; closed-minded (not ready to receive to new ideas)

dogmatic; dogmatical (characterized by assertion of unproved or unprovable principles)

illiberal; intolerant (narrow-minded about cherished opinions)

opinionated; opinionative; self-opinionated (obstinate in your opinions)

petty; small-minded (contemptibly narrow in outlook)

Also:

narrow (not wide)

Antonym:

broad-minded (inclined to respect views and beliefs that differ from your own)

Derivation:

narrow-mindedness (an inclination to criticize opposing opinions or shocking behavior)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Rigidly adhering to a particular sect or its doctrines

Similar:

sectarian (belonging to or characteristic of a sect)

Derivation:

narrow-mindedness (an inclination to criticize opposing opinions or shocking behavior)

 Context examples 

But Mrs. John Dashwood was a strong caricature of himself;—more narrow-minded and selfish.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

He blushed for the narrow-minded counsel which he was obliged to expose.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

His father was a narrow-minded trader and saw idleness and ruin in the aspirations and ambition of his son.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

My dear Jane, Mr. Collins is a conceited, pompous, narrow-minded, silly man; you know he is, as well as I do; and you must feel, as well as I do, that the woman who married him cannot have a proper way of thinking.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)