straitjacket
English
Straitjacket (front view)
Alternative forms
- strait jacket, strait-jacket
- straightjacket (misspelling)
Etymology
From strait + jacket.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈstɹeɪtˌd͡ʒækɪt/
Audio (US) (file)
Noun
straitjacket (plural straitjackets)
- A jacket-like garment with very long sleeves which can be secured in place, thus preventing the wearer from moving his or her arms. Often used in psychiatric hospitals to prevent patients from injuring themselves or others.
- Synonym: (dated) straitwaistcoat
- (figurative) Any situation seen as confining or restricting.
- 2009, Michael Giffin, Quadrant, November 2009, No. 461 (Volume LIII, Number 11), Quadrant Magazine Limited, page 99:
- [I]f we remain in one discipline, we remain in a straitjacket; an adequate theory of language evolution requires a lot of interdisciplinary work.
- 2009, Michael Giffin, Quadrant, November 2009, No. 461 (Volume LIII, Number 11), Quadrant Magazine Limited, page 99:
Straitjacket (rear view)
Translations
a jacket-like garment
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Verb
straitjacket (third-person singular simple present straitjackets, present participle straitjacketing, simple past and past participle straitjacketed)
- (literally) To put someone into a straitjacket.
- (by extension) To restrict the freedom of, either physically or psychologically.
- 2012, Caspar Henderson, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, page 118:
- Where most primates have a respectable pair of grasping rear hands we have two changelings: long arched pads with rounded chins at one end and stumpy thumbs straight-jacketed to baby fingers at the other.
- 2019, Bernardine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other, Penguin Books (2020), page 280:
- she couldnʼt wait to go to college, have a career and leave her parentsʼ straitjacketed lives behind
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Translations
to put someone into a straitjacket
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to restrict the freedom of
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