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:
“Nobody can deny but religion is a comfort to the distressed, a cordial to the sick, and sometimes a restraint on the wicked; therefore whoever would argue or laugh it out of the world without giving some equivalent for it ought to be treated as a common enemy.”
—Mary Wortley, Lady Montagu (1689–1762)
“Liberty is the air that we Americans breathe. Our Government is based on the belief that a people can be both strong and free. That civilized men need no restraint but that imposed by themselves against the abuse of freedom.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“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)