straitjacket
/ˈstɹeɪtˌd͡ʒækɪt/
straitjacket means A jacketlike garment with very long sleeves which can be secured in place, thus preventing the wearer from moving their arms; often used in psychiatric hospitals to prevent patients from injuring themselves or others. It carries an Arena rating of 1543, earned across 4 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, straitjacket ranks #154 of 17,116 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #187 of 17,123 for Most Malleable Words, #417 of 17,115 for Most Vivid Words, #1,100 of 17,130 for Most Ingenious Words.
straitjacket is pronounced /ˈstɹeɪtˌd͡ʒækɪt/.
Why “straitjacket” is a great word
A garment with elongated sleeves that can be fastened together to restrain the wearer's arms, used to control violent or self-harming individuals and, by extension, any rigidly constricting system. From 'strait' (meaning 'narrow, tight, or constricting') + 'jacket'; first attested in the late 18th century (c. 1773). Unlike 'handcuffs,' which bind only the wrists and suggest a temporary, legal arrest, or the general term 'restraint,' a straitjacket is the specific, garment-shaped embodiment of total institutional control. It is the buckled canvas pressing the elbows together, the muffled struggle against one’s own crossed arms, and the silent, padded cell of a mind trapped by dogma—the physical proof that the most profound prisons are often those we are carefully dressed to inhabit.
noun
- A jacketlike garment with very long sleeves which can be secured in place, thus preventing the wearer from moving their arms; often used in psychiatric hospitals to prevent patients from injuring themselves or others.e.g.“There’s a couple of people actually wearing duct-tape straitjackets.”
- Any situation seen as confining or restricting.e.g.“our ever-increasing bureaucratic straitjacket of regulations”
verb
- To put someone into a straitjacket.
- To restrict the freedom of someone or something, either physically or psychologically.e.g.“Charles for five whole days in a Victorian topper and tailcoat when he practically had to be straitjacketted to get him into tails for a three-hour wedding?”
Words closest in meaning
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