straight-jacket

Noun

straitjacket (plural straitjackets)

1. A jacketlike garment with very long sleeves which can be secured in place, thus preventing the wearer from moving their arms; often used in psychiatric hospitals to prevent patients from injuring themselves or others.
   • There’s a couple of people actually wearing duct-tape straitjackets.1992, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, page 243

   Synonyms:

   straitwaistcoat

2. (figuratively) Any situation seen as confining or restricting.
   • our ever-increasing bureaucratic straitjacket of regulations

See all 4 meanings of straitjacket