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Constrained   /kənstrˈeɪnd/   Listen
verb
Constrain  v. t.  (past & past part. constrained; pres. part. constraining)  
1.
To secure by bonds; to chain; to bond or confine; to hold tightly; to constringe. "He binds in chains The drowsy prophet, and his limbs constrains." "When winter frosts constrain the fields with cold."
2.
To bring into a narrow compass; to compress. "How the strait stays the slender waist constrain."
3.
To hold back by force; to restrain; to repress. "My sire in caves constrains the winds."
4.
To compel; to force; to necessitate; to oblige. "The love of Christ constraineth us." "I was constrained to appeal unto Caesar."
5.
To violate; to ravish. (Obs.)
6.
To produce in such a manner as to give an unnatural effect; as, a constrained voice.
Synonyms: To compel; force; drive; impel; urge; press.



adjective
Constrained  adj.  Marked by constraint; not free; not voluntary; embarrassed; as, a constrained manner; a constrained tone.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Constrained" Quotes from Famous Books



... Ithacus the wise! Of that heroic sire the youth is sprung, But modest awe hath chain'd his timorous tongue. Thy voice, O king! with pleased attention heard, Is like the dictates of a god revered. With him, at Nestor's high command, I came, Whose age I honour with a parent's name. By adverse destiny constrained to sue For counsel and redress, he sues to you Whatever ill the friendless orphan bears, Bereaved of parents in his infant years, Still must the wrong'd Telemachus sustain, If, hopeful of your aid, he hopes in vain; Affianced in your friendly power ...
— The Odyssey of Homer • Homer, translated by Alexander Pope

... Heidelberg students, he wandered with them over Italy, Switzerland, and France. Engrossed by these companions, he no longer found time to commune with her, and when occasionally he penned a short letter it was hurried, constrained, and unsatisfactory. One topic had become stereotyped; he never failed to discourage the idea of teaching; urged most earnestly the folly of such a step, and dwelt upon the numerous advantages of social ...
— Beulah • Augusta J. Evans

... generally adopted, were regarded both in Popish and Protestant countries as but little friendly to Revelation; and so strong was the opposite opinion, and so generally were petrifactions regarded as so many proofs of a universal deluge, that Voltaire felt himself constrained, first in his Dissertation drawn up for the Academy at Bologna, and next in his article on shells in the Philosophical Dictionary, to take up the question as charged with one of the evidences of that Revelation which it was the great design of his ...
— The Testimony of the Rocks - or, Geology in Its Bearings on the Two Theologies, Natural and Revealed • Hugh Miller

... error of the two, though unwilling, I am constrained to impose on my Lord of Essex, and rather on his youth, and none of the least of the blame on those that stood sentinels about him, who might have advised better, but that like men intoxicated with hopes, they likewise had sucked in with the most of their lord's receipts, ...
— Travels in England and Fragmenta Regalia • Paul Hentzner and Sir Robert Naunton

... favourite with Miss Murdstone. In short, I was not a favourite there with anybody, not even with myself; for those who did like me could not show it, and those who did not, showed it so plainly that I had a sensitive consciousness of always appearing constrained, boorish, ...
— David Copperfield • Charles Dickens


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