Restringent

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Having the power to draw together or tighten body tissues, often used of substances applied to the skin ; serving to hold back, restrict, or limit an action or tendency
2. Capable of contracting or tightening tissue when applied to the skin or mucous membranes ; tending to curb, check, or confine something
3. Acting to tighten or constrict living tissue, as certain lotions do ; having a restrictive effect that holds back or keeps something within limits

Etymology: "Restringent" is an adjective meaning able to constrict or draw tissues together, the sense in which astringent medicines are used. Its root is the Latin verb "restringere", meaning "to draw tight again" or "to bind back", built from "re-" (back, again) and "stringere" (to draw tight, to bind), the same verb that gave English "strict" and "stringent." The adjective comes from the present participle "restringens" of that verb, so its meaning is simply "drawing tight," a physical action on cloth, cords or flesh. The word is a rare variant of the more familiar "astringent," which has the same Latin ancestry through "astringere," meaning "to bind fast." Both forms belong to the same family of tightening and binding words, and English writers have used "restringent" for the medical sense of a substance that contracts tissue. Because it is little used beyond specialist and older writing, the form is most often met in technical contexts where the notion of pulling tissues together still matters.

Synonyms: astringent, restrictive