Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The threat or use of force to prevent, restrict, or dictate the action or thought of others.
- n. The state of being restricted or confined within prescribed bounds: soon tired of the constraint of military life.
- n. One that restricts, limits, or regulates; a check: ignored all moral constraints in his pursuit of success.
- n. Embarrassed reserve or reticence; awkwardness: "All constraint had vanished between the two, and they began to talk” ( Edith Wharton).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Irresistible force, or its effect; any force or power, physical or moral, which compels to act or to forbear action; compulsion; coercion; restraint.
- n. Specifically Repression of emotion, or of the expression of one's thoughts and feelings; hence, embarrassment: as, he spoke with constraint.
- n. In analytical mechanics, the product of the mass of a particle into the square of that velocity which, compounded with the velocity the particle would have if free, would give the actual velocity.
- n. Synonyms Violence, necessity, coercion. See force, n.
Wiktionary
- n. Something that constrains.
- n. mathematics A condition that a solution to an optimization problem must satisfy.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The act of constraining, or the state of being constrained; that which compels to, or restrains from, action; compulsion; restraint; necessity.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the state of being physically constrained
- n. a device that retards something's motion
- n. the act of constraining; the threat or use of force to control the thoughts or behavior of others
Etymologies
- From Middle English, from Middle French constrainte, from verb constraindre (French: contraindre). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English constreinte, from Old French, from feminine past participle of constraindre, to constrain; see constrain. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“But all of them can easily fire a round every second or two; and the main constraint is the time it takes to aim again, which means that practically speaking semiautomatics and revolvers have a comparable effective rate offire.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Are nearly all handguns “assault weapons”?
“With the shift to the constitutional stage of politics, however, this constraint is at least partially removed.”
“Not having enough money [for the project] was the problem, the constraint from the beginning," explained Alejandro Aravena, Elemental's chief architect.”
The Huffington Post: Loren Berlin: Architecture for the Poor
“Congestible" refers to goods that are nonrival for a certain amount, until a capacity constraint is reached.”
Regulatory Pollution, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“For such goods, initial capital costs tend to be high, while the marginal cost of adding an additional user remains low until the capacity constraint is approached.”
Regulatory Pollution, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“The firm may well reorganize to have a higher capital labor ratio as a result, but total output will be lower because the firm's new budget constraint is below the initial budget constraint, and therefore, also below the prior isoquant.”
“You may discover, as I have, that in design, constraint is freedom.”
“The constraint is simply the * formula* in the administrated program of SS that has been politically manipulated over the years so that it is now mathematically impossible to deliver what the politicians have promised, which will piss off future voters.”
Social Security Privatization Debated, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“The NCAA's not going to engage in constraint of trade or activities because, obviously, of legal limitations on its authority and power," he said.”
“On the N8, its the software that's currently the main constraint and, hopefully, with the imminent new browser and perhaps a re-written Social application, it can get a long way towards satisfying this other 'smartphone' definition - as well.”
The Guardian: The Technology newsbucket: XP dims, WP7 connects, botnets down and more
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘constraint’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
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AFCO - fundamental rights
as enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights
academic freedom, access, asylum, bargaining, citizen, cloning, cohesion, collective agreement, collective bargai..., confidentiality, conflict of interest, constraint and 357 more...
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ECON - economic policy instruments
Towards a European banking union and common economic policy. Terms still warm and crispy from the corridors of legislation (summer 2012).
umbrella fund, Basel I & II, financial transac..., Keynesian reflati..., Lamfalussy procedure, Lamfalussy process, Solvency I & II, Tobin tax, carousel sanctions, prudential oversight, redemption fund, bail-in and 489 more...
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SCIE - statistics
Abbe-Helmert crit..., a priori probability, alphabet, total correlation, three-dimensional..., theoretical frequ..., time reversal test, three-series theorem, theoretical variable, tetrachoric corre..., absolutely unbias..., absolute error and 4171 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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webdev
random webdev lingo used primarily in computer programming.
( open list, randomness, technical jargon, geek speak )
more:
ajax, user, admin, frontend, backend, database, sql, protocol, call, dom, layout, ui and 439 more... -
Programming Jargon
Stuff that comes up all the time at work.
continuation, data structure, node, closure, compiler, funarg problem, garbage collection, pointer, anonymous function, block, currying, first-class function and 63 more...
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maf
sectarian, sectarian =narrow..., oppression, oppress, sort out, worldwide, legit, constrain, constrained, I feel constrained, constraint, divisive and 56 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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miltonic
liberty, froth-becurlèd, host, huge-bellied, aghast, rills, gladsom, wrathfull, ordain, thunder-clasping, ruddy, warble and 264 more...
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common mistakes
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From Book - SAT & College Dictionary ...
ebb, exotic, immure, abeyance, panegyric, debonair, protege, dissipate, frantic, penitent, abject, edify and 871 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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Learned words
Words which are highly likely to be found in the work of learned writers.
ailurophile, labyrinthine, lagniappe, colleague, anechoic, reglets, fluctuations, scalar, implicit, constitute, mortification, ambassadors and 629 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, C
cryptoxanthin, convent, calcar, chuckle, campanile, covet, complexion, campestral, chirography, counterscarp, caliginous, catabolism and 722 more...
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