restriction
(rɪˈstrɪkʃən)
Also 5 restriccioun.
[a. F. restriction, or ad. late L. restrictiōn-em, noun of action f. restringĕre to restringe. Cf. Sp. restriccion, It. re-, ristrizione.]
1. a. A limitation imposed upon a person or thing; a condition or regulation of this nature.
| c 1412 Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 4792 Crist scheelde þat your wil or your entente Be sette to maken a restriccioun Of paiement. 1535 Lyndesay Satyre 2807 That al the temporal lands Be set in few.., With sic restrictiouns as sall be devysit. 1590 Swinburne Testaments 264 The restrictions of this former conclusion are these. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 225 It necessarily suffering such restrictions as take of generall illations. 1693 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) III. 190 Giving security to export yearly 150,000{pstlg} worth of English manufacture, with some other restrictions. 1728–9 Swift's Lett. (1768) IV. 19 All restrictions of marriage are odious in the civil law, and not favoured by the common law, especially after the age of one and twenty. 1772 Priestley Inst. Relig. (1782) II. 117 The restrictions under which our first parents were laid. 1822 Scott Peveril xlviii, A restriction which he supposed as repugnant to his Majesty's feelings as it was to his own. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xix. IV. 371 That one restriction of the royal prerogative had been mischievous did not prove that another restriction would be salutary. 1874 Green Short Hist. vii. §6. 398 The old restrictions on the use of the pulpit were silently removed. |
b. The action or fact of limiting or restricting.
| 1629 H. Burton Truth's Triumph 95 With speciall restriction too, as iustifying a man onely from originall sinne. 1660 R. Coke Power & Subj. 76 The law of nature gives Fathers a power over their children without restriction. 1766 Blackstone Comm. II. 145 Yet this must be understood with some restriction. 1829 I. Taylor Enthus. iv. (1867) 91 There is something incongruous in the idea of a revelation enveloped in menace and restriction. 1840 Dickens Old C. Shop lxvii, It was the day..which threatened the restriction of Mr. Quilp's liberty. 1874 Green Hist. Eng. ix. §2. 604 Not only was the Monarchy restored, but it was restored without restriction or condition. |
c. attrib., as
restriction act,
restriction order.
| 1835 Penny Cycl. III. 380/2 Not..until 1797, when the celebrated Bank Restriction Act was passed. 1875 Encycl. Brit. III. 319/1 Progress of Banking in England down to Restriction Order of 1797. |
d. Deliberate limitation of industrial output.
| 1888 W. E. Nicholson Gloss. Terms Coal Trade 71 Restriction, an arrangement or understanding among the hewers limiting their day's work to something less than a fair ordinary day's work. 1930 Economist 22 Mar. 652/1 At the same time, restriction is being maintained in Oklahoma, while in Texas, although the State Governor views all restriction schemes as a breach of the Anti-Trust laws, a certain amount of voluntary restriction is in force. 1931 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. July 89 Restriction is practised by the non-union worker just as much as it is by the member of a trade union. 1961 Problems of Progress in Industry No. 11 p. 11 If their [sc. workers'] standards are lower than those considered as reasonable by managers, such behaviour is usually called ‘restriction of output’. |
2. a. Logic. (See later
quots.)
| 1551 Robinson tr. More's Utopia ii. (1895) 185 They haue not deuysed one of all those rules of restryctyons, amplyfycatyons, and supposytyons, very wittelye inuented in the small Logycalles, whyche heare oure chyldren in euerye place do learne. 1727–38 Chambers Cycl., Restriction, among logicians, is understood of the limiting a term, so as to make it signify less than it usually does. 1850 Sir W. Hamilton Disc. (1853) App. ii. 692 Table of the mutual relations of the eight propositional forms... Restriction, sub⁓alternation. 1864 F. C. Bowen Logic vi. 169 In some cases the Restriction (Subalternation) and the Integration may be bilateral. |
b. = reservation 4 b. (Usu. with
mental.)
| 1691 tr. Emilianne's Frauds Rom. Monks (ed. 3) 169 Making use to this purpose of their mental Restriction. 1882 Encycl. Brit. XIV. 638/2 They have now divided mental restriction into two main heads. 1884 Catholic Dict. (1897) 620/2 If the restriction is of such a nature that it cannot be perceived by the hearer, then the person who uses it certainly sins. |
3. † a. Med. Constipation; suppression.
Obs.| 1597 A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. 47 b/1 The Cholicke, the restrictione or constipatione. 1599 ― tr. Gabelhouer's Bk. Physicke 219/1 For restrictione of the flowers, and for the corroboratione of the Harte. |
b. Constriction, compression.
rare.
| 1758 J. S. Le Dran's Observ. Surg. (1771) 99 An Uneasiness..that was attended with a slight Restriction of Breath. 1871 Figure Training 31 Notwithstanding that severe restriction of the waist suddenly applied appears likely to prove most irksome, if not injurious. |
4. Math. A function
f whose domain is a subset of a given function
g, whose codomain is the codomain of
g, and for which
f(x)
= G(
x) for all
x in the domain of
f. Also
restriction mapping.
| 1949 Springer & Pollak Algebraic Topology viii. 168 Since f is a restriction of g, we have that the map g∼ of H(A) into H(B) which is reduced by g is exactly the same as the map f{caret} . 1963 D. Bushaw Elem. Gen. Topology 147 If f : X → Y and A ⊂ X, the function fj : A → Y, where j is the injection map from A to X, is called the restriction of f to A and is denoted by f{vb}A. 1979 Proc. London Math. Soc. XXXVIII. 208 Recall that D(G,H) = Ker ρH where ρΗ : Der(G,ZG) → Der(H,ZG) is the restriction mapping. |
5. Biol. Limitation of the rate of reproduction of a virus in certain hosts, owing to the destruction of viral DNA by a restriction enzyme.
| 1962 Jrnl. Molecular Biol. V. 47 Host-controlled modification is known to occur in many bacteriophage-host systems and is usually recognized by restriction in the efficiency of plating of the newly modified phage on its former host strain. 1968 Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. LIX. 1305 The complementation studies suggest that restriction activity is conferred by at least two gene functions. 1979 Nature 1 Mar. 30/1 Bacteriophage T3 and T7 protect their DNA from restriction by producing, as the earliest detectable phage functions, anti-restriction proteins. |
6. Special
Comb.:
restriction endonuclease,
enzyme Biochem., an enzyme that divides large molecules of DNA only if there is a specific sequence of several nucleotides (
usu. four to six in number).
| 1977 Sci. Amer. Dec. 61/1 An important tool for plus-and-minus sequencing and for molecular biology in general was provided by the discovery several years ago of the enzymes called restriction endonucleases, which cleave large DNA molecules into discrete fragments. 1979 Nature 20 Sept. p. v, CP Laboratories Limited have in stock for immediate delivery more than 40 restriction endonucleases. |
| 1965 W. Arber in Ann. Rev. Microbiol. XIX. 368 One might like to assume that a highly specific ‘restriction enzyme’ only initiates the degradation, for example, by cleavage of DNA, and that these cleavage products are then subject to the action of less specific nucleases. 1977 Time 18 Apr. 48/1 Different plasmids, sometimes passed from one bacterium to another, can order up still another kind of chemical weapon, a so-called restriction enzyme, which can sever the DNA of an invading virus, say, at a predetermined point. |
Hence
reˈstrictionary a., imposing restrictions.
| 1828 Examiner 184/1 Their restrictionary measures..may have arisen from a wish to take advantage of the circumstances of the time. |