Other forms: restrained, restraining, restrains
To restrain is to hold somebody back from moving or acting. Restrain him, restrain yourself, physically restrained.
In policing and in care, restraint is a defined and closely regulated act, because holding a person carries real risk — positional asphyxia is the reason the rules exist. Restrain yourself means hold back from doing or saying something. Note restraint, which is both the act and the quality of self-control; and that a restraining order is the American term for what Britain calls an injunction.
1verbrestrainTo hold somebody back from moving or acting.
“Two security guards had to restrain the angry fan who ran onto the pitch.”
2verbyourselfTo hold yourself back.
“I had to restrain myself from laughing when he fell into the pond.”
restrain is a holding back.
Latin restringere is re- plus stringere, to draw tight. Strict, stringent, strain and constrain come from the same tightening.
Latin
rēstringō — fasten, tighten
Old French
restreindre
Middle English
restreinen
English, today
restrain
From Middle English restreinen, from Old French restreindre, from Latin rēstringō (“fasten, tighten”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA