inhibition

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act of inhibiting or the state of being inhibited.
2. n. Something that restrains, blocks, or suppresses.
3. n. Psychology Conscious or unconscious restraint of a behavioral process, a desire, or an impulse.
4. n. Chemistry The condition in which or the process by which a reaction is inhibited.
5. n. Biology The condition in which or the process by which an enzyme, for example, is inhibited.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of inhibiting, or the state of being inhibited; prohibition; restraint; embargo.
2. n. In English law, a writ to forbid a judge from further proceedings in a cause depending before him, issuing usually from a higher ecclesiastical court to an inferior one, on appeal.
3. n. In physiology, the lowering of the action of a nervous mechanism by nervous impulses reaching it from a connected mechanism.
4. n. In psychology, the supposed restraint or cancelation of a mental process by other concurrent mental processes.

Wiktionary

1. n. the act of inhibiting.
2. n. psychology a personal feeling of fear or embarrassment that stops one behaving naturally.
3. n. chemistry the process of stopping or retarding a chemical reaction.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of inhibiting, or the state of being inhibited; restraint; prohibition; embargo.
2. n. (Physiol.) A stopping or checking of an already present action; a restraining of the function of an organ, or an agent, as a digestive fluid or enzyme, etc.
3. n. (Law) A writ from a higher court forbidding an inferior judge from further proceedings in a cause before; esp., a writ issuing from a higher ecclesiastical court to an inferior one, on appeal.
4. n. (Chem., Biochem.) The reduction in rate or stopping of a chemical or biochemical reaction, due to interaction with a chemical agent.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. (psychology) the conscious exclusion of unacceptable thoughts or desires
2. n. (physiology) the process whereby nerves can retard or prevent the functioning of an organ or part
3. n. the quality of being inhibited
4. n. the action of prohibiting or inhibiting or forbidding (or an instance thereof)