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View synonyms for strait-laced

strait-laced

or straight-laced

[ streyt-leyst ]

adjective

  1. excessively strict in conduct or morality; puritanical; prudish:

    strait-laced censors.

  2. tightly laced, as a bodice.
  3. wearing tightly laced garments.


strait-laced

adjective

  1. prudish or puritanical
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Other Words From

  • strait-laced·ly [streyt, -, ley, -sid-lee, -, leyst, -lee], adverb
  • strait-laced·ness noun
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Word History and Origins

Origin of strait-laced1

late Middle English word dating back to 1400–50
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Example Sentences

Albert took the throne in July 2005 after the death of his strait-laced father, Prince Rainier.

There was in society, though it was not strait-laced or puritanical, a general standard of "good form."

I have asked two gentlemen to dinner; that will be livelier, not so strait-laced; we can laugh and enjoy ourselves.

He had taken the pledge from Father Mathew before he left Ireland, and had kept it faithfully; but he was not strait-laced.

Mr Taylor's 'solicitous and premeditated formalism' of poetical doctrine is, it must be confessed, a little too strait-laced.

She stopped on the path outside the decorous strait-laced houses and put her cool gloved hand up to her burning cheek.

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strait-laceStraits dollar