Definitions

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

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

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of inhibiting, or the state of being inhibited; prohibition; restraint; embargo.
  • noun 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.
  • noun In physiology, the lowering of the action of a nervous mechanism by nervous impulses reaching it from a connected mechanism.
  • noun In psychology, the supposed restraint or cancelation of a mental process by other concurrent mental processes.

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

  • noun The act of inhibiting, or the state of being inhibited; restraint; prohibition; embargo.
  • noun (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.
  • noun (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.
  • noun (Chem., Biochem.) The reduction in rate or stopping of a chemical or biochemical reaction, due to interaction with a chemical agent.

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

  • noun the act of inhibiting.
  • noun psychology a personal feeling of fear or embarrassment that stops one behaving naturally.
  • noun chemistry the process of stopping or retarding a chemical reaction.

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

  • noun (psychology) the conscious exclusion of unacceptable thoughts or desires
  • noun (physiology) the process whereby nerves can retard or prevent the functioning of an organ or part
  • noun the quality of being inhibited
  • noun the action of prohibiting or inhibiting or forbidding (or an instance thereof)

Etymologies

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Examples

  • II. ii.346 (217,9) I think, their inhibition comes by the means of the late innovation] I fancy this is transposed: Hamlet enquires not about an _inhibition_, but an _innovation_; the answer therefore probably was,

    Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies Samuel Johnson 1746

  • But if we abstract from any such implication, and conceive of such force as the term inhibition seems to connote, as restricted to the associated neural or physiological processes, no unwarranted assumptions need be imported by the term into the facts, and the definition may, perhaps, suffice.

    Harvard Psychological Studies, Volume 1 Containing Sixteen Experimental Investigations from the Harvard Psychological Laboratory. Various 1889

  • The effect of this inhibition is considered a bimodal phenomenon.

    Monamine Oxidase Inhibitors 2010

  • My only inhibition is how little I know the answer myself.

    Diana Abu-Jaber discusses her true identity with Origin 2010

  • "In such diseases, inhibition is more direct than excitation, because you can shut down neural circuits that are behaving erratically," he said.

    Pulsing Light Used as Non-Surgical Treatment for Epilepsy, Parkinson’s | Impact Lab 2007

  • Noncompetitive inhibition is rarely seen in enzymes that catalyze reactions requiring only one substrate.

    Irwin Rose - Autobiography 2005

  • Although inhibition is linked to norepinephrine, what Higley calls the "nerdiness" of the loner who can't get along goes with low levels of the transmitter serotonin.

    How We Become What We Are 1994

  • Although inhibition is linked to norepinephrine, what Higley calls the "nerdiness" of the loner who can't get along goes with low levels of the transmitter serotonin.

    How We Become What We Are 1994

  • One study has suggested that 40 percent of the difference in inhibition among a group of middle-class children depended on genes, but, Kagan says, "to ask what proportion of personality is genetic rather than environmental is like asking what proportion of a blizzard is due to cold temperature rather than humidity."

    How We Become What We Are 1994

  • One study has suggested that 40 percent of the difference in inhibition among a group of middle-class children depended on genes, but, Kagan says, "to ask what proportion of personality is genetic rather than environmental is like asking what proportion of a blizzard is due to cold temperature rather than humidity."

    How We Become What We Are 1994

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