Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Excessively strict in behavior, morality, or opinions.
- adjective Having or wearing a tightly laced garment.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Made close and tight by lacing, as stays or a bodice.
- Wearing tightly laced stays, bodice, etc.
- Hence Strict in manners or morals; rigid in opinion.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Bound with stays.
- adjective rare Restricted; stiff; constrained.
- adjective Rigid in opinion; strict in manners or morals.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Alternative spelling of
straight-laced . - adjective
Bound withstays .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective exaggeratedly proper
- adjective exaggeratedly proper
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Ameche and Tierney are a handsome, appealing pair from their first meeting in a bookshop, while Charles Coburn (as scampish Grandpa Hugo) and Allyn Joslyn (as Henry's strait-laced cousin Albert) round out a fabulous supporting cast.
John Farr: Laughing in Style: That Special 'Lubitsch Touch' John Farr 2011
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They are not second-tier officials, but strait-laced Party servants previously entrusted with lofty responsibilities.
Yoani Sanchez: Card-Carrying Communist Green Collar Criminals: Planning for Their Futures as Capitalists Yoani Sanchez 2011
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Remember before the Microsoft era, back when the archetype of the computer engineer was not that of a laid-back, semi-cool, scruffy geek but that of a strait-laced, uptight, button-down IBM company man with a company haircut?
Gene and the Machine: The shocking truth about the electric Volt Gene Weingarten 2011
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For KP it must have felt a bit like going somewhere really strait-laced on your gap year and entirely reinventing yourself, perhaps as a flamboyant transsexual New York garage DJ-type figure, only to turn round one day and find half the people from your A-level year standing in the corner looking faintly amused.
Colonial promiscuity in danger of diluting test cricket's pleasures | Barney Ronay 2011
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The movie's high point—its very high point—is Frances McDormand's sensational performance as Sam's mother, Jane, a pansexual record producer who can't suppress a nervous giggle when she introduces her strait-laced son to a gaggle of indolent musicians.
'Contraband': Almost Illegally Entertaining Joe Morgenstern 2012
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A strait-laced conservative up to that point, he learned that the only thing that eased the physical pain was marijuana, and has been smoking it ever since, the last person on earth you would have expected to do so.
Matthew Yglesias » Marijuana Legalization More Popular than Key Conservative Leaders 2009
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He is also sometimes criticized for his bureaucratic, strait-laced management style.
Battle for Japan Premiership Takes Shape Toko Sekiguchi 2011
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For KP it must have felt a bit like going somewhere really strait-laced on your gap year and entirely reinventing yourself, perhaps as a flamboyant transsexual New York garage DJ-type figure, only to turn round one day and find half the people from your A-level year standing in the corner looking faintly amused.
Colonial promiscuity in danger of diluting test cricket's pleasures | Barney Ronay 2011
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In between shots of the Beales as the documentary found them, we flash back to the women in their glory: Big Edie (Lange) entertaining at parties to the disapproval of her strait-laced husband (Ken Howard), who thinks she should be finding a rich husband for their daughter (Barrymore).
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He is also sometimes criticized for his bureaucratic, strait-laced management style.
Battle for Japan Premiership Takes Shape Toko Sekiguchi 2011
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