strait jacket
Asylum patient's restraint
A straitjacket is a garment with long sleeves that wrap around and restrain the wearer's arms, historically used to immobilize violent or disturbed patients in psychiatric institutions.
Figuratively, anything that severely restricts freedom or flexibility: The regulations felt like a straitjacket on innovation.
Also spelled strait jacket or straightjacket, though the original spelling reflects strait meaning narrow or confining.
- restraintControl over impulses
- asylumShelter from persecution
- mental institutionPsychiatric treatment facility
- padded cellFoam-lined isolation chamber
- padded roomCushioned psychiatric cell
rubber room · buckles · canvas · confinement · mental hospital · struggling · bound · straight arms · trapped · insanity · madness · straps · arms · tight squeeze · psychiatric · escape · break free · Houdini
- magic propsmagic wand, wand, top hat, cards, playing cards
- old medicinebloodletting, leeches, leech therapy, leeching, cupping
- prison equipmenthandcuffs, shackles, prison bars, cell bars, bars
- restraintshandcuffs, shackles, chains, ropes, cuffs
- medical instrumentsscalpel, forceps, needle, catheter, retractor
- punishment toolswhip, chains, shackles, rack, stocks
strait jacketfreedom of movement
Liberty to travel unimpeded
unrestrained · unbound · loose clothing · unfettered · mobility
strait jacketfree rein
Unrestricted freedom to act
carte blanche · creative freedom · autonomy · flexibility · latitude
strait, jacket, straits, straiten, straitened, straitlaced, jackets, jacketed, jacketing