restraint

noun

Etymology: From Middle English restreynte, from Old French restreinte; more at restrain.

1. Something that restrains, ties, fastens or secures.

   “Make sure all the restraints are tight.”

   “At the centre of Stalin’s superiority over his competitors was certainly his intense will, just as Napoleon ranked what he called ‘moral fortitude’ higher in a general than genius or experience. When Milovan Djilas said to Stalin during the Yugoslav-Soviet discussions in Moscow during the war that the Serbian politician Gavrilović was ‘a shrewd man’, Stalin commented, as though to himself: ‘Yes, there are politicians who think shrewdness is the main thing in politics. . . .’⁴⁴ His was a will-power taken to a logical extreme. There is something non-human about his almost total lack of normal restraints upon it.”

2. Control or caution; reserve.

   “Try to exercise restraint when talking to your boss.”

   “City will feel nonplussed when they review the tape and Pellegrini had to summon all his restraint in the post-match interviews.”