Adjacent Words

Restrained definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

RESTRA'INED, pp. Held back from advancing or wandering; withheld; repressed; suppressed; abridged; confined.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: cool and formal in manner [syn: restrained, reticent, unemotional]
2: under restraint [ant: unrestrained]
3: marked by avoidance of extravagance or extremes; "moderate in his demands"; "restrained in his response" [syn: moderate, restrained]
4: not showy or obtrusive; "clothes in quiet good taste" [syn: quiet, restrained]
5: prudent; "guarded optimism" [syn: guarded, restrained]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: 14th century marked by restraint ; not excessive or extravagant • restrainedly adverb

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Restrain Re*strain", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Restrained; p. pr. & vb. n. Restraining.] [OE. restreinen, F. restreindre, fr. L. restringere, restrictum; pref. re- re- + stringere to draw, bind, or press together. See Strain, v. t., and cf. Restrict.] 1. To draw back again; to hold back from acting, proceeding, or advancing, either by physical or moral force, or by any interposing obstacle; to repress or suppress; to keep down; to curb. Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature Gives way to in repose! --Shak. 2. To draw back toghtly, as a rein. [Obs.] --Shak. 3. To hinder from unlimited enjoiment; to abridge. Though they two were committed, at least restrained of their liberty. --Clarendon. 4. To limit; to confine; to restrict. --Trench. Not only a metaphysical or natural, but a moral, universality also is to be restrained by a part of the predicate. --I. Watts. 5. To withhold; to forbear. Thou restrained prayer before God. --Job. xv. 4. Syn: To check; hinder; stop; withhold; repress; curb; suppress; coerce; restrict; limit; confine.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. Someone who is restrained is very calm and unemotional. In the circumstances he felt he'd been very restrained... ADJ 2. If you describe someone's clothes or the decorations in a house as restrained, you mean that you like them because they are simple and not too brightly-coloured. Her black suit was restrained and expensive. ADJ [approval]

Moby Thesaurus

Attic, Ciceronian, Olympian, aesthetic, aloof, arrested, artistic, aseptic, backward, barred, bashful, beleaguered, beset, besieged, blank, blockaded, bound, bridled, cabined, caged, chaste, chastened, chilled, chilly, choice, classic, clear, cloistered, closed-in, cold, confined, constrained, controlled, cool, cooped, cordoned, cordoned off, corralled, cramped, cribbed, curbed, detached, direct, discreet, distant, easy, elegant, enclosed, excellent, expressionless, fenced, finished, forbidding, frigid, frosty, frugal, graceful, gracile, guarded, hedged, hemmed, hushed, icy, immured, impassive, impersonal, imprisoned, in check, in control, in good taste, in hand, in leading strings, in remission, inaccessible, incarcerated, incommunicable, inhibited, introverted, jailed, leaguered, limited, limpid, lucid, measured, mewed, moderate, modest, natural, neat, noncommittal, of choice, of quality, offish, on leash, paled, pellucid, penned, pent-up, perspicuous, plain, pleasing, polished, pure, quarantined, quelled, quiet, railed, reasonable, refined, remote, removed, repressed, reserved, retarded, reticent, retiring, round, shrinking, shut-in, simple, slowed down, sober, softened, sparing, stable, standoff, standoffish, stinting, straightforward, subdued, suppressed, tasteful, tasty, temperate, tempered, terse, trim, unaffable, unaffected, unapproachable, uncongenial, undemonstrative, under control, under discipline, under restraint, understated, unexcessive, unexpansive, unextreme, ungenial, unlabored, unobtrusive, walled, walled-in, well-chosen, withdrawn