Restraint may refer to:
- A personal virtue. See self control.
- Physical restraint, the practice of rendering people helpless or keeping them in captivity by means such as handcuffs, ropes, straps, etc.
- Medical restraint, a subset of general physical restraint used for medical purposes
- Restraint (film), an Australian thriller directed by David Deenan
- Safety harness
- The use of any type of brake etc. to slow down or stop any moving machine or vehicle
In legal terminology:
- Restraint of trade, a restriction on a person's freedom to conduct business
- Restraint on alienation, in property law, a clause that seeks to prohibit the recipient of property from transferring his or her interest
- Judicial restraint, a theory of judicial interpretation that encourages judges to limit the exercise of their own power
- Prior restraint, a government's actions that prevent materials from being distributed
- Vertical restraints, agreements between firms or individuals at different levels of the production and distribution process
Famous quotes containing the word restraint:
“Moral laws are set as a curb and restraint to these exorbitant desires, which they cannot be but by rewards and punishments, that will over-balance the satisfaction any one shall propose to himself in the breach of the law.”
—John Locke (1632–1704)
“A majority, held in restraint by constitutional checks, and limitations, and always changing easily, with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“The Persians are called the French of the East; we will call the Arabs Oriental Italians. A gifted noble people; a people of wild strong feelings, and of iron restraint over these: the characteristic of noblemindedness, of genius.”
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)