constipation
/kɒnstɪˈpeɪʃ(ə)n
/noun [mass noun]
1A condition in which there is difficulty in emptying the bowels, usually associated with hardened faeces.Other commonly associated symptoms include nausea, vomiting, and constipation or diarrhea....
- It isn't a disease but may be a symptom of severe constipation or emotional difficulties related to stool holding.
- The drug should not be used by patients who are currently constipated or whose main bowel symptom is constipation.
1.1A high level of constraint or restriction: literary constipation...
- The result has been a form of social constipation, a culture of non-performance in regard to expeditious implementation.
- Wales's gregariousness is real enough, but so is the chronic social constipation of its governing classes in which everyone knows everyone else.
- I'm having Creative Constipation.
Origin
Late Middle English (in the sense 'contraction of body tissues'): from late Latin constipatio(n-), from the verb constipare (see constipated).