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Restraint of freedom in words or actions; backwardness; caution in personal behavior. My soul, surprised, and from her sex disjoined, Left all reserve, and all the sex, behind. Prior. The clergyman's shy and sensitive reserve had balked this scheme. Hawthorne.

Restrained from freedom in words or actions; backward, or cautious, in communicating one's thoughts and feelings; not free or frank. To all obliging, yet reserved to all. Walsh. Nothing reserved or sullen was to see. Dryden. -- Re*serv"ed*ly (r, adv. -- Re*serv"ed*ness, n.

To restrain within bounds; to limit; to confine; as, to restrict worlds to a particular meaning; to restrict a patient to a certain diet.

That which restricts; limitation; restraint; as, restrictions on trade.

To restrain; to prevent. [Obs.] Sir W. Temple. Retaining wall (Arch. & Engin.), a wall built to keep any movable backing, or a bank of sand or earth, in its place; -- called also retain wall.

That which retains or confines; a restraint. [R.] Bp. Hall.

To move playfully; to indulge without restraint. "Where joy most revels." Shak.

To hold back; to repress; to restrain. [Obs.] [She] still strove their sudden rages to revoke. Spenser.

Wanton or unrestrained behavior; uproar; tumult. His headstrong riot hath no curb. Shak.

Involving, or engaging in, riot; wanton; unrestrained; luxurious. The younger son . . . took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. Luke xv. 13.

orderly; easily restrained; -- opposed to Ant: unruly. [Obs.] Gascoigne.

To let go by the run (Naut.), to loosen and let run freely, as lines; to let fall without restraint, as a sail.

One who, or that which, flees from danger, duty, restraint, etc.; a fugitive. Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled Shak.

Having no ruth; cruel; pitiless. Their rage the hostile bands restrain, All but the ruthless monarch of the main. Pope. -- Ruth"less*ly, adv. -- Ruth"less*ness, n.

in December, originally during one day, but afterward during seven days, as a period of unrestrained license and merriment for all classes, extending even to the slaves.

Of unrestrained and intemperate jollity; riotously merry; dissolute. "Saturnalian amusement." Burke.

Control of one's self; restraint exercised over one's self; self-command.

Indulgence of one's appetites, desires, or inclinations; -- the opposite of self-restraint, and self-denial.

ing unneccessary ornament, amplification, etc.; strict; -- said of style, argument, etc. "Restrained by reason and severe principles." Jer. Taylor. The Latin, a most severe and compendious language. Dryden.

To restrain from the exercise of any function, privilege of instruction, or the like, especially from the act of preaching; as, to silence a minister of the gospel. The Rev. Thomas Hooker of Chelmsford, in Essex, was silenced for nonconformity. B. Trumbull.