▪ I. astrict, v.
(əˈstrɪkt)
Also 7–9 adstrict.
[f. L. astrict- ppl. stem of astringĕre to astringe.]
1. trans. To bind up, confine within narrow limits, compress; hence, to render costive.
| 1548 Hall Chron. 239 The Course of water astricted..will flow and burst out in continuance of tyme. 1650 tr. Bacon's Life & Death 42 The Stomach..to be..Astricted or bound, not Loose. 1863 C. Walton in N. & Q. Ser. iii. IV. 406 A little globe, so contracted, astricted, and narrowed, that, etc. |
2. To bind by moral or legal obligation.
| 1513–75 Diurn. Occurr. (1833) 108 His fader was astrictit be souerties in parliament. 1688 Ess. Magistr. in Harl. Misc. I. 7 Tied to the same rules they were adstricted to. 1880 Muirhead Gaius iii. §87 Whether a man..be astricted to the inheritance by necessity of law. |
3. To restrict, tie down, limit to.
| 1588 A. King Canisius' Catech. H v. b, Y⊇ monethes..war æquall to y⊇ cowrse of y⊇ moon: Ȝeit war thay nocht astricted yairto. 1619 Sacrilege Sacr. Handled 6 Holy meates were astricted to only holy persons. 1836–7 Sir W. Hamilton Metaph. xl. (1870) II. 403 The mind is thus astricted to certain necessary modes or forms of thought. |
4. Sc. Law. To restrict in tenure. See astricted.
▪ II. † aˈstrict, a. Obs. rare—1.
[ad. L. astrictus; see prec.]
Compressed, concise.
| 1631 Weever Anc. Fun. Mon. 8 An Epitaph is..an astrict pithie Diagram. |