self-restraint

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self-re·straint

(sĕlf′rĭ-strānt′)

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

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

self-restraint

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

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

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.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

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 ?

Carey looked at him with startled eyes, and then, used to self-restraint, she poured out another cup of tea for his uncle.

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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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." He paused a moment, then said with a doctoral air: "Self-restraint is everything in life, you know.

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The captain, standing a little to one side, was listening to all the curate said, and watching every movement of his brother, who, as soon as he perceived the curate had made an end of his story, gave a deep sigh and said with his eyes full of tears, "Oh, senor, if you only knew what news you have given me and how it comes home to me, making me show how I feel it with these tears that spring from my eyes in spite of all my worldly wisdom and self-restraint! That brave captain that you speak of is my eldest brother, who, being of a bolder and loftier mind than my other brother or myself, chose the honourable and worthy calling of arms, which was one of the three careers our father proposed to us, as your comrade mentioned in that fable you thought he was telling you.

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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. Suppressed rage was in his rigidly set eyes, suppressed rage was in his trembling hand as he raised it emphatically while he spoke his next words.

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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 this woman endured it, from the beginning of the evening to the end.

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He came a little closer to her, and the strength of the man was manifest in his intense self-restraint. His words were measured, his tone quiet.