A straitjacket is a special jacket used to tie the arms of a violent person tightly around their body.
Occasionally his behavior became so uncontrollable that he had to be placed in astraitjacket.
2. countable noun
If you describe an idea or a situation as a straitjacket, you mean that it is very limited and restricting.
The national curriculum must be a guide, not a straitjacket.
...the ideological straitjacket of religious fundamentalism.
straitjacket in British English
(ˈstreɪtˌdʒækɪt)
noun
1. Also called: straightjacket
a jacket made of strong canvas material with long sleeves for binding the arms of violent prisoners or psychiatric patients
2.
a severe restriction or limitation
verb
3. (transitive)
to confine in or as if in a straitjacket
straitjacket in American English
(ˈstreɪtˌdʒækɪt)
noun
1.
a coatlike device that binds the arms tight against the body: used to restrain persons in a violent state
2.
anything that confines or limits
verb transitive
3.
to confine or restrict with or as with a straitjacket
Examples of 'straitjacket' in a sentence
straitjacket
But objectives that become a straitjacket do harm.
Peter F. Drucker THE ESSENTIAL DRUCKER (2001)
One involves wearing a tactical straitjacket.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
He promised to remove the England team from their tactical straitjacket.
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
But the Holland star is not listening as he again made it look like he was wearing a straitjacket with a poor display.
The Sun (2015)
In France, there is no ideological straitjacket that prohibits intervention.
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
They have neither the experience nor, in some cases, the basic knowledge needed to escape from its straitjacket.
Times, Sunday Times (2010)
This wilful escape from the straitjacket of her rigidly choreographed, big-budget productions was clearly as much fun for her as it was for the audience.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
In other languages
straitjacket
British English: straitjacket NOUN
A straitjacket is a special jacket used to tie the arms of a violent person tightly around their body.
Occasionally his behaviour became so uncontrollable that he had to be placed in a straitjacket.