Word.ws English Dictionary

pull the reins in on someone

pull the reins in on someone verb: to restrict, curtail, curb.

Verb

pull the reins in on someone (third-person singular simple present pulls the reins in on someone, present participle pulling the reins in on someone, simple past and past participle pulled the reins in on someone)

  1. To restrict, curtail, curb.
    • Yes and I ain't sayin' you ain't pretty, / All I'm sayin's I'm not ready / For any person, place or thing / To try and pull the reins in on me.1966, Mike Nesmith, Different Drum, 1967, Linda Ronstadt (vocalist), The Stone Poneys, Different Drum (single)
    • Now, given Milligan's deliberately annoying escapades, Caul was perfectly willing and able to pull the reins in on Billy (and Milligan freely agrees with this), but he was never given the chance.1996, Larry Michelson, William J. Ray, Handbook of Dissociation: Theoretical, Empirical, and Clinical Perspectives, page 605

Forms of pull the reins in on someone

third-person singular presentpulls the reins in on someone
present participlepulling the reins in on someone
past participlepulled the reins in on someone
pastpulled the reins in on someone

Questions about pull the reins in on someone

What does pull the reins in on someone mean?
Pull the reins in on someone means to restrict, curtail, curb.
What part of speech is pull the reins in on someone?
Pull the reins in on someone is a verb.
What is the past tense of pull the reins in on someone?
The past tense of pull the reins in on someone is pulled the reins in on someone.

Words near pull the reins in on someone in the dictionary

  1. pull the other one, it's got bells on
  2. pull the other one, it's got brass bells on
  3. pull the pin
  4. pull the plug
  5. pull the pud
  6. pull the reins in on someone
  7. pull the reins in on something
  8. pull the rug
  9. pull the rug out from under
  10. pull the shutters down
  11. pull the string

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pull the reins in on someone (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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