strait-laced
21laced — laced; un·laced; strait·laced·ly; strait·laced·ness; …
22strait-lace — /strayt lays /, v.t., strait laced, strait lacing. to bind, confine, or restrain with or as if with laces. [1630 40; back formation from STRAIT LACED] * * * …
23strait-lace — /strayt lays /, v.t., strait laced, strait lacing. to bind, confine, or restrain with or as if with laces. [1630 40; back formation from STRAIT LACED] …
24strait — straight, strait 1. Straight is a Middle English past participle of the verb stretch and has many meanings in modern English, primarily ‘extending uniformly in the same direction without a curve or bend’. Strait, which has the basic meaning… …
25laced up — adj British a. (of a person) fully occupied, obligated, embroiled b. (of a thing) completed, accomplished, in the bag Both senses are variant forms of standard metaphorical meanings of tied up. c. repressed, inhibited. In this sense the phrase is …
26strait-lacedly — See strait laced. * * * …
27strait — n. & adj. n. 1 (in sing. or pl.) a narrow passage of water connecting two seas or large bodies of water. 2 (usu. in pl.) difficulty, trouble, or distress (usu. in dire or desperate straits). adj. archaic 1 narrow, limited; confined or confining.… …
28straight-laced — adjective exaggeratedly proper my straitlaced Aunt Anna doesn t approve of my miniskirts • Syn: ↑priggish, ↑prim, ↑prissy, ↑prudish, ↑puritanical, ↑square toed, ↑straitlaced, ↑ …
29straight-laced — straight′ laced′ adj. strait laced …
30straight-laced — [strāt′lāst΄] adj. STRAIT LACED (sense 2) …
