self-restraint

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self-re·straint

(sĕlf′rĭ-strānt′)

Restraint of one's emotions, desires, or inclinations; self-control.

self-restraint

restraint imposed by oneself on one's own feelings, desires, etc

self′-restraint′

restraint imposed on one by oneself; self-control.

[1765–75]

self′-restrained′, adj.

self′-restrain′ing, adj.

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Noun

self-restraint - exhibiting restraint imposed on the self; "an effective temperateness in debate"

temperateness

restraint, control - discipline in personal and social activities; "he was a model of polite restraint"; "she never lost control of herself"

stiff upper lip - self-restraint in the expression of emotion (especially fear or grief); "the British like to keep a stiff upper lip"

self-restraint

noun self-control, self-discipline, willpower, patience, forbearance, abstemiousness, self-command We've been exercising self-restraint in our resistance to occupation.

self-restraint

noun

The keeping of one's thoughts and emotions to oneself:

control, reserve, restraint, reticence, self-control, taciturnity, uncommunicativeness.

References in classic literature ?

But as she could do nothing, she resolutely made up her mind to self-restraint and patience.

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Arthur is not what is commonly called a bad man: he has many good qualities; but he is a man without self-restraint or lofty aspirations, a lover of pleasure, given up to animal enjoyments: he is not a bad husband, but his notions of matrimonial duties and comforts are not my notions.

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Mary's white muslin dress suited her particularly well, and she seemed the personification of innocence and love as she sat, now bending her head, now gazing up at the very tall and handsome man who was speaking to her with particular tenderness and self-restraint, as if he feared by word or gesture to offend or sully her angelic purity.

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The virtues, also, such as justice, self-restraint, and so on, are not easily dislodged or dismissed, so as to give place to vice.

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It was not often that he had so far overstepped the bounds which his natural caution, his ever-present self-restraint, imposed upon him.

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Knowing what she knew, suffering as she must have suffered, the quiet kindness of her tone implied an exercise of self-restraint which appealed irresistibly to Emily's sympathies.

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He stood looking at her, meditating his next words with a sudden and sinister change to self-restraint.

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Only a woman who had been accustomed to suffer, who had been broken and disciplined to self-restraint, could have endured the moral martyrdom inflicted on her as

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He came a little closer to her, and the strength of the man was manifest in his intense self-restraint.

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Hardship and freedom: conditions under which the active, strong, and subtle survive and the weaker go to the wall; conditions that put a premium upon the loyal alliance of capable men, upon self-restraint, patience, and decision.

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You would compare them, I said, to those invalids who, having no self-restraint, will not leave off their habits of intemperance?

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She was speaking as usual in French, and as if after long self-restraint she wished to make up for lost time.