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constraint
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  • We were looked after by the older brother, who must have been warned to restrain himself, for he never touched us. The younger one was under no such constraints.   (source)
    constraints = limitations (limiting his actions)
  • Free from all social constraint, young people gave way openly to instinct, taking advantage of the darkness to flirt in our midst, without caring about anyone else, as though they were alone in the world.   (source)
    constraint = limiting someone's actions
  • She insisted on her unequivocal determination for them to remain together only so long as they were friends, without constraints or promises for the future, just like Sartre and Beauvoir.   (source)
    constraints = limitations
  • Politicians and kings suffer the agony of constraint.   (source)
  • Why should we have a government? Because the passions of men won't conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.   (source)
    constraint = something that limits actions
  • Bedeviled as they may have been at times by the dilemma of surplus population, the traditional slaveholders of the Western world were under Christian constraint to avoid anything resembling a "final solution" to solve the problem of excess labor; one could not shoot an expensively unproductive slave;   (source)
    constraint = limited
  • He might have noticed that a curious constraint came over the other members of the party.   (source)
    constraint = inhibition or reserve
  • An indescribable constraint, weariness, and humiliation were perceptible beneath this hardihood.   (source)
    constraint = something that limits something else
  • Mr. and Mrs. Shelby both felt annoyed and degraded by the familiar impudence of the trader, and yet both saw the absolute necessity of putting a constraint on their feelings.   (source)
  • At the same time, the most stalwart workers in the urban centers were wearying under the burden of the continuous workweek; artists faced tighter constraints on what they could or could not imagine; churches were shuttered, repurposed, or razed; and when revolutionary hero Sergei Kirov was assassinated, the nation was purged of an array of politically unreliable elements.†   (source)
  • And since the buildings were just pieces of software, their design wasn't limited by monetary constraints, or even by the laws of physics.†   (source)
  • The only constraint on the arms race that remains is the nineteen seventy-two Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union.†   (source)
  • Andy's mother, with her understated jewelry and her not-quite-interested smile—the kind of woman who could get on the phone with the mayor if she needed a favor — seemed to operate somehow above the constraints of New York City bureaucracy.†   (source)
  • "Stop thinking in terms of constraints," he told her.†   (source)
  • Burnham and Root realized that Jenney's innovation freed builders from the last physical constraints on altitude.†   (source)
  • We kept jumping hurdles, kept breaking from the constraints, kept evading the border guards of every new trek.†   (source)
  • Man can strive for freedom in order to live without outer constraint, but he will never achieve 'free will.'†   (source)
  • The official dots manual contained the following statement: "In settings of resource constraint, it is necessary for rational resource allocation to prioritise tb treatment categories according to the cost-effectiveness of treatment of each category."†   (source)
  • In his heart, he howled with frustration and longed to break free of the stifling constraints of good manners and polite conduct and to climb on Saphira and fly away to somewhere peaceful.†   (source)
  • But there was a constraint in the room now, too, which had not been there before, which had entered with the girl who would soon be a woman.†   (source)
  • What made me finally recognize the indifferent cruelty of my own past wasn't the constraints put on me by the U.S. government, nor the debt I had amassed for legal fees, nor the fact that I could not be with the man I loved.†   (source)
  • It took ten minutes since he had to answer questions and use the chart to diagram time and space constraints.†   (source)
  • Women's microbusinesses grow more slowly than men's, according to some studies, presumably because women are supposed to work from home and look after children at the same time--and these constraints also make it difficult for women-run businesses to graduate to a larger scale.†   (source)
  • He'd barely made the two-mile ocean swim within the ninety-five-minute time constraint, and the next two-mile swim had to be finished within eighty-five minutes, with the final two-mile swim in phase three in under seventy-five minutes.†   (source)
  • No. Not with your time constraints.†   (source)
  • Anger surges past the constraints of shame.†   (source)
  • Including automatic loyalty to the position within the constraints of being a citizen.†   (source)
  • True, the moral climate was imperfect; there were pressures, constraints, but nonetheless I made binding choices.†   (source)
  • As they lay down to sleep, all the day's constraint - which had ebbed somewhat away during the lighting of the fire - came flooding back.†   (source)
  • There was an odd kind of shyness or constraint between them, which neither could understand.†   (source)
  • There is constraint between them) Some cheese ….†   (source)
  • What was of worth was not me, but the veneer of constraints and observances that obscured me.   (source)
    constraints = things that limit actions
  • Judith took John's arm confidingly, still carried quite beyond constraint on her wave of happiness.   (source)
    constraint = inhibition or reserve
  • In the years I had lived on Aiaia, I had never chafed at my constraint.   (source)
    constraint = limitation of freedom
  • But I want us to be in agreement about the constraints of the job.   (source)
    constraints = limitations
  • "Positive liberty," another student said, "is freedom from internal constraints."   (source)
    constraints = things that limit action
  • Their only constraint will be the obligations of good faith.   (source)
    constraint = something that limits something else
  • The sky and the ground are black, like a computer screen that hasn't had anything drawn into it yet; it is always nighttime in the Metaverse, and the Street is always garish and brilliant, like Las Vegas freed from constraints of physics and finance.   (source)
    constraints = limitations
  • By contrast, the working-class and poor children were characterized by "an emerging sense of distance, distrust, and constraint."   (source)
    constraint = limitation of action
  • As though to prove that the constraint between them was broken, in the next wait for the rowboat Nat strolled over to join her where she stood watching.   (source)
    constraint = inhibition or reserve
  • He learned constraint.   (source)
    constraint = things that limit actions
  • All those days of my fear and his constraint were like a debt that must be paid. He careered across the island, refusing to sit, or even stop for a moment.   (source)
    constraint = limitation
  • I kept Telegonus bound against me while I worked, for I was afraid to put him down. He hated such constraint and screamed, his puffy fists shoving at my chest.   (source)
  • The best academic summary is probably: R. I. M. Dunbar, "Neocortex size as a constraint on group size in primates," Journal of Human Evolution (1992), vol.   (source)
    constraint = something that limits something else
  • Owing to legal constraints and the need for an official-sounding name, he called it the Institute for Union with Nothingness, or the I.U.N.   (source)
    constraints = limitations
  • They understood, with an admirable delicacy of instinct, that certain cares may be put under constraint.   (source)
    constraint = something that limits something else
  • It was the first time that ever George had sat down on equal terms at any white man's table; and he sat down, at first, with some constraint and awkwardness; but they all exhaled and went off like fog, in the genial morning rays of this simple, overflowing kindness.   (source)
  • There had always existed, as the reader knows, a lofty wall, a coldness and a constraint between them; ice which must be broken or melted.   (source)
  • After hearing that, Ruth didn't agonize as much over time constraints.†   (source)
  • But for years, I had this running fantasy of my scientist father in a laboratory carrying out vital experiments—the imagination ofa paltry kid who wanted so much to break away from the constraints of a society which expected my father to be a janitor or a laborer — when I wanted a father who transformed the world.†   (source)
  • The nightmare sense of constraint.†   (source)
  • The wolf, however, licked his chops with a grin, his constraint and dissimulation erased.†   (source)
  • They greeted each other with constraint "I am glad you have come to Camelot," he said.†   (source)
  • Msimangu's face lights up, but he talks humbly, there is no pride or false constraint.†   (source)
  • There is in each of us a feeling of constraint.†   (source)
  • Father Vincent left them, and they all stood in the same constraint.†   (source)
  • However after several nights of this embarrassing constraint, Aunt Bertha's self-imposed shackles grew too much for her.†   (source)
  • My feet rang on the flagged stones, echoing to the ceiling, and I felt guilty at the sound, as one does in church, self-conscious, aware of the same constraint.†   (source)
  • Even the constraint which had been between them since the day of Melanie's ill-starred surprise party did not worry her, for she knew it would pass.†   (source)
  • The nonrepresentational or "abstract," if it is to have aesthetic validity, cannot be arbitrary and accidental, but must stem from obedience to some worthy constraint or original.†   (source)
  • He went back to the university sealed up against the taunts of the young men: in the hot green Pullman they pressed about him with thronging jibe, but they fell back sharply, as fiercely he met them, with constraint.†   (source)
  • Once, however, it was abandoned, music was forced to withdraw into itself to find a constraint or original.†   (source)
  • At these rare, unnatural exhibitions of affection, the children laughed with constraint, fidgeted restlessly, and said: "Aw, papa, don't.†   (source)
  • This constraint, once the world of common, extroverted experience has been renounced, can only be found in the very processes or disciplines by which art and literature have already imitated the former.†   (source)
  • They were filled with a deep and tranquil affection for each other: they talked without constraint, without affectation, with quiet confidence and knowledge.†   (source)
  • There fell a constraint between them, until the young demonstrator said quietly, umfundisi, I work here with all my heart, is it not so?†   (source)
  • For a wonder there was no one in the shop except the big bull man, who greeted him with a certain constraint.†   (source)
  • They were only the sons of the little rich men, the lords of the village and county, but as he saw them go so surely, with such laughing unconstraint, in well-cut clothes, well-groomed, well-brushed, among the crowd of humbler students, who stiffened awkwardly with peasant hostility and constraint,—they were the flower of chivalry, the sons of the mansion-house.†   (source)
  • They did not kiss after the European fashion, but stood looking at each other without words, bound in a great constraint.†   (source)
  • The girl glanced at him and at it with constraint.†   (source)
  • Mrs. Carey could not see anything amusing in what she heard, and she smiled with constraint.†   (source)
  • He himself seemed under a tight band of constraint.†   (source)
  • But I could not help seeing that there was some constraint with him.†   (source)
  • After a moment Mattie seemed to be affected by the same sense of constraint.†   (source)
  • All constraint had vanished between the two, and they began to talk easily and simply.†   (source)
  • He was too much in earnest now to feel any false constraint in speaking his mind.†   (source)
  • To ease his constraint he said: "I suppose they'll be setting a date before long."†   (source)
  • Nature secretly avenges herself for the constraint imposed upon her by the laws of man.†   (source)
  • The constraint that had been put upon me, was quite abandoned.†   (source)
  • "Yes?" said the Doctor, with evident constraint.†   (source)
  • All constraint with the master had disappeared long ago.†   (source)
  • All constraint and formality quickly disappeared, and the friendliest feeling succeeded.†   (source)
  • I am sure this—what should I say, constraint, reticence in you will vanish at last.'†   (source)
  • That perfect amenity under acute constraint was part of a larger system.†   (source)
  • I look forward, my dear, to our meeting easily and without constraint on either side.†   (source)
  • If not, it is very simple," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, feeling more and more free from constraint.†   (source)
  • There is no constraint upon you, I hope.†   (source)
  • 'So you have noticed reticence …. as you expressed it …. constraint?'†   (source)
  • 'There is no constraint in the case,' said I. 'Will you come?'†   (source)
  • Thus forced to speak, she replied with constraint, 'You demanded as much as a thousand pounds.'†   (source)
  • "Oh, no!" she said, but he saw in her eyes a constraint that boded him no good.†   (source)
  • In reality, I see no immediate prospect—" and rising from his seat he added, without a trace of constraint: "But Mrs. Carfry will think that I ought to be taking you upstairs."†   (source)
  • No; but less often than with landsmen do their vices, so called, partake of crookedness of heart, seeming less to proceed from viciousness than exuberance of vitality after long constraint; frank manifestations in accordance with natural law.†   (source)
  • She knew how to hit to a hair's-breadth that moment of evening when the light and the darkness are so evenly balanced that the constraint of day and the suspense of night neutralize each other, leaving absolute mental liberty.†   (source)
  • The stir of the pulses which his nearness always caused was increased by a slight sense of constraint.†   (source)
  • But I, embracing Hatred, she lends,—forbidding, stiffly fluted, The ruff's starched folds that hold the head so rigid; Each enemy—another fold—a gopher, Who adds constraint, and adds a ray of glory; For Hatred, like the ruff worn by the Spanish, Grips like a vice, but frames you like a halo!†   (source)
  • I have done nothing actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal constraint.†   (source)
  • For three long days Helen had felt a constraint with which heretofore she had been unfamiliar; for the last hours it had been submerged under dread.†   (source)
  • When the affair was thus officially ended, Ronny, who was about to be transferred to another part of the Province, approached Fielding with his usual constraint and said: "I wish to thank you for the help you have given Miss Quested.†   (source)
  • General constraint.†   (source)
  • It was so unlike his usual timid self-constraint; so inconsistent with his usual taste and tact, and with his instinctive feeling for the higher proprieties.†   (source)
  • We shall both be dead in a few years, and then what will it matter to anybody that you relieved me from constraint for a little while?†   (source)
  • Besides, what is most important, one feels quite free there, one does what one likes without constraint or fuss.†   (source)
  • As the twain disappeared from view, the three officers as partially liberated from some inward constraint associated with Billy's mere presence, simultaneously stirred in their seats.†   (source)
  • She went out towards the mead, joining the other milkmaids with a bound, as if trying to make the open air drive away her sad constraint.†   (source)
  • And then, seeing that I smiled and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and made a step forward, with her hands wrung together.†   (source)
  • "Oh, you do make me so miserable," she cried, with a jerk of her body as though to shake herself free of the constraint of his question.†   (source)
  • She soon finished her eating, and having a consciousness that Clare was regarding her, began to trace imaginary patterns on the tablecloth with her forefinger with the constraint of a domestic animal that perceives itself to be watched.†   (source)
  • The tinge of constraint was beginning to be more distinctly perceptible under the friendly ease of his manner.†   (source)
  • speaking to her with a shy smile, with an air of constraint which called to my mind the other little girl that Gilberte must be when at home with her parents, or with friends of her parents, paying visits, in all the rest, that escaped me, of her existence.†   (source)
  • She glanced shyly at Lily, asking in an embarrassed tone how she felt; Lily answered with the same constraint, and raised herself up to drink the tea.†   (source)
  • We shall see you soon, I hope," trying, by the friendliness of her manner and the constraint of her smile, to prevent him from noticing that she Was not saying, as she would always have until then: "To-morrow, then, at Chatou, and at my house the day after."†   (source)
  • The memory of Mrs. Fisher's hints, and the corroboration of his own impressions, while they deepened his pity also increased his constraint, since, whichever way he sought a free outlet for sympathy, it was blocked by the fear of committing a blunder.†   (source)
  • It was the one subject which enabled him to forget himself, or allowed him, rather, to remember himself without constraint, because he was at home in it, and could assert a superiority that there were few to dispute.†   (source)
  • Selden's entrance had caused Lily an inward start of embarrassment; but his air of constraint had the effect of restoring her self-possession, and she took at once the tone of surprise and pleasure, wondering frankly that he should have traced her to so unlikely a place, and asking what had inspired him to make the search.†   (source)
  • In strange contrast to the hardly tolerable constraint and nameless invisible domineerings of the captain's table, was the entire care-free license and ease, the almost frantic democracy of those inferior fellows the harpooneers.†   (source)
  • Boris did not appear to notice the constraint the newcomer produced and, with the same pleasant composure and the same veiled look in his eyes with which he had met Rostov, tried to enliven the conversation.†   (source)
  • With Tom the interval had seemed still longer, for he had been seated in irksome constraint on the edge of a sofa directly opposite his uncle Pullet, who regarded him with twinkling gray eyes, and occasionally addressed him as "Young sir."†   (source)
  • His whole air was expressive of constraint and weariness, which our lieutenants of the garrison would to-day translate admirably as, "What a beastly bore!"†   (source)
  • I answered with a constraint I made no attempt to disguise, that I had seen Mr. Jaggers in Miss Havisham's house on the very day of our combat, but never at any other time, and that I believed he had no recollection of having ever seen me there.†   (source)
  • There was a certain constraint in all this conversation, and in the silence, and in the reconciliation, and in the forgiveness, and all were feeling it.†   (source)
  • I mean, I am the more easily to be trusted; and any little constraint that you might feel with another, may vanish before me.†   (source)
  • Lydgate found it more and more agreeable to be with her, and there was no constraint now, there was a delightful interchange of influence in their eyes, and what they said had that superfluity of meaning for them, which is observable with some sense of flatness by a third person; still they had no interviews or asides from which a third person need have been excluded.†   (source)
  • It would be more true to say they separate as oil from water, as children from old people, without love or hatred in the matter, each seeking his like; and any interference with the affinities would produce constraint and suffocation.†   (source)
  • The same pious care which enriched the abbey of St Mary, and left us, orphans, to its holy guardianship, directed that no constraint should be imposed upon our inclinations, but that we should be free to live according to our choice.†   (source)
  • Why they stared at her so helplessly, as if waiting for the touch of some wand that should release them from terrestrial constraint; what that chaos called consciousness, which spun in her at this moment like a top, tended to, and began in.†   (source)
  • The livelong day he sat in his loom, his ear filled with its monotony, his eyes bent close down on the slow growth of sameness in the brownish web, his muscles moving with such even repetition that their pause seemed almost as much a constraint as the holding of his breath.†   (source)
  • Boldwood came close and bade her good morning, with such constraint that she could not but think he had stepped across to the washing for its own sake, hoping not to find her there; more, she fancied his brow severe and his eye slighting.†   (source)
  • Notwithstanding all this, when the hurry of the first half-hour was over, the same silence and constraint prevailed that had marked their journey down.†   (source)
  • By acknowledging the real authority of these secondary communities (and it was impossible to deprive them of it), they disavowed beforehand the habitual use of constraint in enforcing g the decisions of the majority.†   (source)
  • A true Tartarean dignity sat upon her brow, and not factitiously or with marks of constraint, for it had grown in her with years.†   (source)
  • The Lowood constraint still clings to you somewhat; controlling your features, muffling your voice, and restricting your limbs; and you fear in the presence of a man and a brother — or father, or master, or what you will — to smile too gaily, speak too freely, or move too quickly: but, in time, I think you will learn to be natural with me, as I find it impossible to be conventional with you; and then your looks and movements will have more vivacity and variety than they dare offer now.†   (source)
  • His constraint was so manifest, and it was so manifest, too, that it originated in an unwillingness to approach the subject, that Charles Darnay hesitated.†   (source)
  • It would be necessary to employ force to induce them to submit to the protection and the constraint of civilization.†   (source)
  • While he was yet nearly a mile from the house his mother exhibited signs of restlessness under the constraint of being borne along, as if his arms were irksome to her.†   (source)
  • I by no means suppose, however, that the great change which takes place in all the habits of women in the United States, as soon as they are married, ought solely to be attributed to the constraint of public opinion: it is frequently imposed upon themselves by the sole effort of their own will.†   (source)
  • He not only showed no sign of constraint or self-reproach on account of his outburst that morning, but, on the contrary, tried to reassure Balashev.†   (source)
  • Uncles and aunts paid only short visits now; of course, they could not stay to meals, and the constraint caused by Mr. Tulliver's savage silence, which seemed to add to the hollow resonance of the bare, uncarpeted room when the aunts were talking, heightened the unpleasantness of these family visits on all sides, and tended to make them rare.†   (source)
  • The housekeeper had told him without the least constraint of manner that since Mr. Garth left, Raffles had asked her for beer, and after that had not spoken, seeming very ill.†   (source)
  • 'I will never put any constraint upon her inclinations,' said Mrs Nickleby to herself; 'but upon my word I think there's no comparison between his lordship and Sir Mulberry—Sir Mulberry is such an attentive gentlemanly creature, so much manner, such a fine man, and has so much to say for himself.†   (source)
  • Silas, always ill at ease when he was being spoken to by "betters", such as Mr. Cass—tall, powerful, florid men, seen chiefly on horseback—answered with some constraint— "Sir, I've a deal to thank you for a'ready.†   (source)
  • There being not the least constraint in his manner, there was none (or I think there was none) in mine.†   (source)
  • Moreover, the languages of America have a great degree of regularity, from which it seems probable that the tribes which employ them had not undergone any great revolutions, or been incorporated voluntarily or by constraint, with foreign nations.†   (source)
  • Anna Sergyevna was not disposed to put any constraint on the young people, and only on account of the proprieties did not leave them by themselves for too long together.†   (source)
  • Like all other powers, and perhaps more than all other powers, the authority of the many requires the sanction of time; at first it enforces obedience by constraint, but its laws are not respected until they have long been maintained.†   (source)
  • But the pain was immediately followed by a feeling of release from the oppressive constraint that had prevented her taking part in life.†   (source)
  • There was a curious constraint between her and Mr. Wickfield, I thought (of whom she seemed to be afraid), that never wore off.†   (source)
  • But as he reflects when he is left alone, the woman has been putting no common constraint upon herself.†   (source)
  • I wanted to have a little talk with you about my sister and your mutual position," he said, still struggling with an unaccustomed constraint.†   (source)
  • In the family's feeling toward this wedding a certain awkwardness and constraint was evident, as if they were ashamed of not having loved Vera sufficiently and of being so ready to get her off their hands.†   (source)
  • Aristocratic institutions cannot subsist without laying down the inequality of men as a fundamental principle, as a part and parcel of the legislation, affecting the condition of the human family as much as it affects that of society; but these are things so repugnant to natural equity that they can only be extorted from men by constraint.†   (source)
  • 'Pardon me!' said Mr. Micawber, with an air of constraint, 'I speak of my friend Heep as I have experience.'†   (source)
  • The uncle, a rigid old gentleman of strong force of character; the nephew, habitually timid, repressed, and under constraint.'†   (source)
  • Plutarch's lives of great commanders furnish convincing instances of the fact: the soldiers were in the constant habit of freely addressing their general, and the general listened to and answered whatever the soldiers had to say: they were kept in order by language and by example, far more than by constraint or punishment; the general was as much their companion as their chief.†   (source)
  • If he would only have brushed up his hair or turned up his collar, it would have been bad enough; but to know that that absurd figure was always gazing at me, and always in that demonstrative state of despondency, put such a constraint upon me that I did not like to laugh at the play, or to cry at it, or to move, or to speak.†   (source)
  • She looked after her baby without constraint in his presence; and once when she was suddenly attacked with giddiness and headache—she took a spoonful of medicine from his hand.†   (source)
  • 'And if, my dear Frederick—if you could, without putting any great constraint upon yourself, throw a little (pray excuse me, Frederick), a little Polish into your usual demeanour—'†   (source)
  • In despotic States the sovereign is so attached to the exercise of his power, that he dislikes the constraint even of his own regulations; and he is well pleased that his agents should follow a somewhat fortuitous line of conduct, provided he be certain that their actions will never counteract his desires.†   (source)
  • Men have lost the common law of manners, and they have not yet made up their minds to do without it; but everyone endeavors to make to himself some sort of arbitrary and variable rule, from the remnant of former usages; so that manners have neither the regularity and the dignity which they often display amongst aristocratic nations, nor the simplicity and freedom which they sometimes assume in democracies; they are at once constrained and without constraint.†   (source)
  • He made haste to be the first to offer his hand to Arkady and Bazarov, as though understanding beforehand that they did not want his blessing, and he behaved himself in general without constraint.†   (source)
  • At first the family felt some constraint in intercourse with Prince Andrew; he seemed a man from another world, and for a long time Natasha trained the family to get used to him, proudly assuring them all that he only appeared to be different, but was really just like all of them, and that she was not afraid of him and no one else ought to be.†   (source)
  • 'He would have risen against all constraint; but he found himself the monarch of the place, and he haughtily determined to be worthy of his station.†   (source)
  • However, I must tell you, as I am to tell you all, that I fancy they are under a constraint with Mr Gowan, and that they feel as if his mocking way with them was sometimes a slight given to their love for her.†   (source)
  • He was conscious of this, and put a constraint upon his head; but his keeping that immovable, and sitting rolling his eyes like a piece of machinery, did not mend the matter at all.†   (source)
  • I could not have borne to lose the smallest portion of her sisterly affection; yet, in that betrayal, I should have set a constraint between us hitherto unknown.†   (source)
  • In that new presence she would have been bashful enough under any circumstances, and particularly under Flora's insisting on her drinking a glass of wine and eating of the best that was there; but her constraint was greatly increased by Mr Pancks.†   (source)
  • There was a twitch of Miss Betsey's head, after each of these sentences, as if her own old wrongs were working within her, and she repressed any plainer reference to them by strong constraint.†   (source)
  • — when my death shall release her from constraint, I shall close my eyes upon her honoured face, with unbounded confidence and love; and leave her, with no sorrow then, to happier and brighter days.'†   (source)
  • My occupation of Peggotty's spare-room put a constraint upon me, from which he was free: for, knowing how assiduously she attended on Mr. Barkis all day, I did not like to remain out late at night; whereas Steerforth, lying at the Inn, had nothing to consult but his own humour.†   (source)
  • Her lips were tightly compressed, as if she knew that she must keep a strong constraint upon herself — I write what I sincerely believe — or she would be tempted to strike the beautiful form with her foot.†   (source)
  • 'Oh, really, Master Copperfield,' he rejoined — 'I beg your pardon, Mister Copperfield, but the other comes so natural, I don't like that you should put a constraint upon yourself to ask a numble person like me to your ouse.'†   (source)
  • Meaning nothing but a certain matured frivolity and selfishness, not always inseparable from full-blown years, I think she confirmed him in his fear that he was a constraint upon his young wife, and that there was no congeniality of feeling between them, by so strongly commending his design of lightening the load of her life.†   (source)
  • What irksome constraint I underwent, sitting in the same attitude hours upon hours, afraid to move an arm or a leg lest Miss Murdstone should complain (as she did on the least pretence) of my restlessness, and afraid to move an eye lest she should light on some look of dislike or scrutiny that would find new cause for complaint in mine!†   (source)
  • My visitors seemed to breathe more freely when he was gone; but my own relief was very great, for besides the constraint, arising from that extraordinary sense of being at a disadvantage which I always had in this man's presence, my conscience had embarrassed me with whispers that I had mistrusted his master, and I could not repress a vague uneasy dread that he might find it out.†   (source)
  • For madam, said Sir Launcelot, I love not to be constrained to love; for love must arise of the heart, and not by no constraint.†   (source)
  • And they are not to found otherwise, because men will always prove untrue to you unless they are kept honest by constraint.†   (source)
  • Before another woman's loom in Argos it may be you will pass, or at Messeis or Hypereie fountain, carrying water, against your will—iron constraint upon you.†   (source)
  • It comes about that it is Akhilleus, who had repudiated every constraint of custom and convention, who urges Priam to stop his unrelenting mourning and partake of food.†   (source)
  • As to old Phoinix, he is sleeping there by invitation, so that he may sail to his own country, homeward with Akhilleus, tomorrow, if he wills, without constraint.†   (source)
  • They were only the sons of the little rich men, the lords of the village and county, but as he saw them go so surely, with such laughing unconstraint, in well-cut clothes, well-groomed, well-brushed, among the crowd of humbler students, who stiffened awkwardly with peasant hostility and constraint,—they were the flower of chivalry, the sons of the mansion-house.†   (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unconstraint means not and reverses the meaning of constraint. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
  • He masters whose spirit masters, he tastes sweetest who results sweetest in the long run, The blood of the brawn beloved of time is unconstraint; In the need of songs, philosophy, an appropriate native grand-opera, shipcraft, any craft, He or she is greatest who contributes the greatest original practical example.†   (source)
  • But there was still a vague sense of injury and constraint; things were not yet healed between us.†   (source)
  • I could feel the shyness and constraint beginning to creep back.†   (source)
  • We fitted well together, and most of our original constraint was gone, lost in shared excitement and the novelty of exploring each other.†   (source)
  • The hard-won intimacy of the night seemed to have evaporated with the dew, and there was considerable constraint between us in the morning.†   (source)
  • He shook his constraint from him nervously.†   (source)
  • I will confess what I know without constraint; if ye pinch me like a pasty I can say no more.†   (source)
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