restrainre‧strain /rɪˈstreɪn/ ●○○ AWL verb [transitive] 
Word Origin Examples
I had to restrain her from running out into the street. He had to be restrained from using violence.2to control your own emotions or behaviour: Renwick restrained a feeling of annoyance.restrain yourself (from doing something) She could barely restrain herself from hitting him.3to control or limit something that is increasing too much: Price rises should restrain consumer spending.
Word OriginWORD ORIGINrestrain
Verb TableOrigin:
1300-1400 Old French restreindre, from Latin restringere, from stringere; ➔ STRINGENTVERB TABLE
restrain
| Simple Form | ||
| Present | I, you, we, they | restrain |
| he, she, it | restrains | |
| Past | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | restrained |
| Present perfect | I, you, we, they | have restrained |
| he, she, it | has restrained | |
| Past perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | had restrained |
| Future | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will restrain |
| Future perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will have restrained |
| Continuous Form | ||
| Present | I | am restraining |
| he, she, it | is restraining | |
| you, we, they | are restraining | |
| Past | I, he, she, it | was restraining |
| you, we, they | were restraining | |
| Present perfect | I, you, we, they | have been restraining |
| he, she, it | has been restraining | |
| Past perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | had been restraining |
| Future | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will be restraining |
| Future perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will have been restraining |
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
Thesaurus- His arm was hurting him and he had to be restrained from doing too much.
- It took four officers to restrain Wilson before he could be handcuffed.
- It took three men to restrain him.
- Mary got up to go after them, but I put out my arm to restrain her.
- Roger stepped forward and Martin put out his arm to restrain him.
- She wanted to ask him all about his private life, but wisely restrained herself.
- The economy's growth will slow down enough to restrain inflation.
- Back to hospital and you must restrain yourself, old boy, nudge wink.
- Malone had to be restrained by players and his own officials in the row that ensued.
Longman Language Activatorto control your feelings► control
Collocations if you control yourself or control your feelings, you continue to behave calmly and sensibly and do not become too angry, excited, or upset: control yourself/himself etc: · She was really annoying me, but I managed to control myself and not say anything.control your temper: · I wish he'd learn to control his temper.
► self-control the ability to behave calmly and sensibly and not become too angry, excited, or upset, even when you have a good reason to: · The German team showed amazing self-control throughout the game.
► keep your temper to manage to stay calm and not become angry, especially when someone is trying to make you angry: · I knew they were trying to annoy me but I was determined to keep my temper.· Police officers are expected to keep their tempers whatever people say to them.· It took all her patience just to keep her temper.
► self-discipline the ability to make yourself work hard, take a lot of exercise, not eat the wrong foods etc because you know it is good for you to do so: · I don't know if I've enough self-discipline to work full-time and go to night school.· We try to teach the children self-reliance and self-discipline.
► restrain yourself to stop yourself doing or saying something, especially something that might have a harmful result: · I was tempted to stay for another drink, but in the end I restrained myself and went home.restrain yourself from: · So far I have managed to restrain myself from phoning up to complain.
► snap out of it to suddenly start to control yourself after you have been very sad or upset and make yourself feel better again: · You've been in this mood for days now -- I wish you'd snap out of it.· He's so depressed. He doesn't seem able to snap out of it at all.
► get a grip on yourself spoken say this when you want someone to stop behaving in a very emotional way, especially when they are so frightened or upset that they cannot control the way they are behaving: · Come on, calm down, get a grip on yourself.· Occasionally Georgie would find Tommy crying, and he'd tell him to get a grip on himself.
► pull yourself together spoken say this when you want someone to stop behaving emotionally, especially when you are a little annoyed or embarrassed at the way they are behaving: · Pull yourself together. It's ridiculous to get upset about such a silly little thing.· His father was not one to hand out sympathy, but would simply tell him to "pull himself together".
to make someone stop moving► stop · The police are stopping drivers to ask questions about the accident.· The truck was stopped by customs officers for a routine check.· A man stopped me in the street and asked if I knew where the theatre was.
► restrain to hold someone so that they cannot move forward or attack someone: · It took three men to restrain him.· Mary got up to go after them, but I put out my arm to restrain her.
► hold back to prevent someone from moving forward or into a place: · They put up huge barriers to hold back the crowd.· My father held me back, otherwise I would have rushed up onto the stage.
► stop somebody dead/stop somebody (dead) in their tracks to surprise or frighten you, so that you stop suddenly: · Seeing the policeman there stopped me dead. I didn't know what to do.· Jim was stopped in his tracks by the sound of a rifle behind him.
► flag down to stop a car that is coming towards you by waving your arms: flag down something: · I managed to flag down a passing car and ask for help.flag something/somebody down: · The patrolman stepped out in front of the truck to flag it down.
► pull over if someone, especially a police officer pulls you over , they make you stop driving and park at the side of the road: · The police pulled me over and checked my licence.· He got pulled over on the way home and had to take a breath test.
► intercept to stop something such as a boat or plane, before it has finished its journey or achieved its purpose: · Two British ships were sent to intercept the convoy.· All three fighter planes were intercepted and destroyed.
to prevent someone from doing what they want to do► prevent to make it impossible for someone to do something that they want to do: prevent somebody from doing something: · A leg injury may prevent Shearer from playing in tomorrow's game.· There were reports that some people had been prevented from voting in the election.
► stop to stop someone from doing something that they want to do, especially by controlling them in an unreasonable way: · I've made up my mind to leave home, and you can't stop me.stop somebody (from) doing something: · My parents tried to stop me seeing Anne.· The government has taken legal action to stop the BBC from broadcasting a documentary about the Secret Service.
► keep somebody from doing something to prevent someone from doing something, especially something that might be harmful or upsetting: · Staying busy kept her from thinking about her illness.· It was all I could do to keep myself from hitting him.
► restrain to prevent someone from doing something harmful or stupid, either by physically stopping them or by persuading them not to do it: · Roger stepped forward and Martin put out his arm to restrain him.restrain yourself: · She wanted to ask him all about his private life, but wisely restrained herself.restrain somebody from doing something: · His arm was hurting him and he had to be restrained from doing too much.
► hold back to prevent someone or something from moving forward or making progress: hold back somebody/something: · The police had already erected crash barriers to hold back the advancing crowds.· The poor economic situation has held back investment in new technology.hold somebody/something back: · Bill leapt to his feet to go after the girl, but the others held him back.· She always felt that being a woman had held her back in her career.
► get in the way of to make someone too busy to do something else, especially something they should do: · Don't let your social life get in the way of your education.
► discourage to make it less likely that someone will do something, for example by showing them that it may have a bad or unwelcome result: · Higher taxes are likely to discourage investment.· It is a well known fact that a negative working environment discourages creativity.discourage somebody from doing something: · Higher cigarette prices do not seem to discourage people from smoking.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADVERB► more
Word family· Todd's picture is more restrained.· Before the chamber-sponsored forum two weeks ago, Yocum was the one who came out swinging, while Thibadeau was more restrained.· When the Bill was debated in committee and on report, language was again more restrained.· In other families, the tone is decidedly more restrained when it comes to expressing anger.
NOUN► breach· Another difficulty in the Gouriet case was that the applicant sought an injunction to restrain a threatened breach of the criminal law.· Harman J decided that the injunction restraining a breach of confidence should expire at the same time as a restrictive covenant.
► court· Construction is proceeding despite an interim court order restraining the company from putting it into commission.· The chancery court issued a restraining order forbidding desegregation in September.· However, the court did restrain Virgin from terminating or altering the terms of Fields's service agreements.
► defendant· Upjohn J. granted an order restraining the defendants from infringing Chappell & Co.'s copyright.
► growth· There is a further reason why it is difficult to restrain the growth of the money supply over the longer term.· True, recession is probably partly responsible for restraining the growth of industrial waste.
► injunction· An injunction to restrain them from persuading their members not to play there was refused.· Another difficulty in the Gouriet case was that the applicant sought an injunction to restrain a threatened breach of the criminal law.· Harman J decided that the injunction restraining a breach of confidence should expire at the same time as a restrictive covenant.· Having launched the action, he sought a Mareva injunction restraining the appellants from dealing with the property.· The plaintiff's sought an injunction to restrain R Co's directors from recommending the offer.· It wanted the return of those papers and an injunction restraining the use of the information obtained from them.
► order· Construction is proceeding despite an interim court order restraining the company from putting it into commission.· Upjohn J. granted an order restraining the defendants from infringing Chappell & Co.'s copyright.
► police· He was finally restrained by police after he grabbed Mrs Rodham as she waited for a bus.· One onlooker had to be restrained by police as Mrs Wignall was led away.· No doubt, the presence of tourists in the square had a restraining effect on police procedure.· Some loyalists who approached the Diamond from Bishop Street were restrained by the police and the rally ended peacefully.
VERB► grant· Upjohn J. granted an order restraining the defendants from infringing Chappell & Co.'s copyright.· Within a day, a county judge granted a restraining order barring enforcement of the new law.
► issue· The chancery court issued a restraining order forbidding desegregation in September.· A judge issued a temporary restraining order.· Agnes Brye said she had asked authorities a few years ago to issue the restraining order before they finally did so.· A San Francisco Superior Court judge issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting the sale or storage of marijuana at the club.· California's Public Utilities Commission issued a temporary restraining order requiring the two utilities to keep serving more than 2 million customers.
► seek· Having launched the action, he sought a Mareva injunction restraining the appellants from dealing with the property.· Instead, McGee said he would seek a temporary restraining order from a judge to halt the appointment.· The plaintiff's sought an injunction to restrain R Co's directors from recommending the offer.
► try· Mark tries to restrain his impatience.· The police tried to restrain the marchers and arrest the leaders.· Simpson tried his best to restrain him.· Beate scratches, kicks and wiggles as the two boys try to restrain her.
WORD FAMILYnounrestraintadjectiverestrained ≠ unrestrainedverbrestrain
1to stop someone from doing something, often by using physical forcerestrain somebody from doing something I had to restrain her from running out into the street. He had to be restrained from using violence.2to control your own emotions or behaviour: Renwick restrained a feeling of annoyance.restrain yourself (from doing something) She could barely restrain herself from hitting him.3to control or limit something that is increasing too much: Price rises should restrain consumer spending.