Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act or process of constricting.
  • noun The condition or result of being constricted.
  • noun Something that constricts.
  • noun A feeling of tightness or pressure.
  • noun A constricted or narrow part.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act or process of constricting; the state of being constricted.
  • noun The result of constricting; a constricted or narrowed part.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of constricting by means of some inherent power or by movement or change in the thing itself, as distinguished from compression.
  • noun The state of being constricted; the point where a thing is constricted; a narrowing or binding.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The act of constricting, the state of being constricted, or something that constricts
  • noun A narrow part of something; a stricture
  • noun A compression

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the action or process of compressing
  • noun a narrowing that reduces the flow through a channel
  • noun tight or narrow compression
  • noun a tight feeling in some part of the body

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Unfortunately, lower labor costs also constrict and undermine the economy, and that constriction is usually far more destructive than any benefit society might derive from cheaper labor.

    Matthew Yglesias » The Kolbe-Boyd Plan 2010

  • Unfortunately, lower labor costs also constrict and undermine the economy, and that constriction is usually far more destructive than any benefit society might derive from cheaper labor.

    Matthew Yglesias » The Kolbe-Boyd Plan 2010

  • The constriction is a pregnant pause, a signaling moment, to let you know the time is ... now!

    Stacey Lawson: A Dialogue With Myself 2008

  • Colic is defined as the constriction of a tube within the body.

    eHow - Health How To's 2010

  • I remember taking a tour of Paris and the very elegant female tour guide kept refering to the "constriction" of certain landmarks.

    Like taking your yearbook picture with spinach in your teeth 2005

  • His voice sounded oddly gruff, as though there was some kind of constriction in his throat.

    A Cure For Love Jordan, Penny 1991

  • It is generally a question of developmental anomalies of widely divergent nature, such as constriction or dilation of the great vessels given off from the heart, of persisting patent communications between them, or of defects in the ventricular or atrial septum.

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1956 - Presentation Speech 1964

  • There comes a kind of constriction in a man's throat when he is hungering after lesser good, especially when there is a tinge of evil in the supposed good that he is hungering after, which incapacitates Him from eating the bread of God, which is Jesus Christ.

    Expositions of Holy Scripture: Romans Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V) Alexander Maclaren 1868

  • Advair inhalers do work well for airway constriction which is the result of the tightening of the muscles around the airways of your lungs.

    Shaister Miester Do Da 2009

  • Relax had taken this new direction just ahead of the arrival of stress in its sense of inner and psychological as opposed to external forms of oppression and constriction.

    The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010

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