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restrict

/rɪˈstrɪkt//rɪˈstrɪkt/·verb
to keep something within set limits; to allow only a reduced amount or range
Fig. 1 — A goat catches sight of a tuft of green just ahead and leans out for it, and the slack rope at its collar lifts off the ground and pulls straight.
01Definition

To restrict is to hold something inside limits — to cut down how much is allowed through, who may enter, or how far a thing can go. A diet restricts certain foods; a law restricts access; a narrow valve restricts a flow to a trickle. The point is throttling rather than stopping: what is restricted still exists, but only a permitted portion gets past. From the Latin restringere, 'to bind back', it shares its root with 'restrain' and 'strict'.

02In use
  • iThe government used every sanction available to restrict public gatherings and suppress the outbreak.
  • iiTight rules that restrict spending can inhibit a young company's growth.
  • iiiMembership is restricted to residents of the town.
03Collocations
  • restrict access
  • severely restrict
  • restrict movement
  • restricted to
  • restrict the flow

Family restriction (noun) · restricted (adjective) · restrictive (adjective)

04Relations

=limit, confine, curb, constrain, restrain

≠broaden, permit, free

05Compared
PairThe difference
restrict vs constrictphysically squeezed narrower around its girth → constrict; held within limits someone set → restrict.
restrict vs expandreach growing wider → expand; held inside limits → restrict.
restrict vs transcendrises beyond a limit so it no longer binds → transcend; held inside the limit → restrict.
06TOEFL & IELTS

A core academic verb for policy and science writing — 'restrict access to', 'severely restrict', 'restricted to' are exam-ready. Promote the noun restriction and the adjective restrictive in formal essays. Note that it is weaker than ban or prohibit: to restrict is to limit, not to forbid outright, which matters when you are weighing arguments.

07Asked
What's the difference between restrict and limit?
Limit sets a maximum and is neutral about who set it: a speed limit, limited time. Restrict implies an authority holding something inside bounds, and leans toward access and behaviour: restricted entry, restricted diets. The scene above is the flavour exactly — the goat grazes freely everywhere the rope reaches, and the leaves a hand's width past it might as well be on the moon. A limit is a number; a restriction has an author.
Is it 'restricted to' or 'restricted from'?
Opposite directions, both correct. Restricted to marks the permitted zone: membership is restricted to residents — only they qualify. Restricted from marks the forbidden act: visitors are restricted from entering the ward. One preposition draws the inside of the fence, the other the outside; pick by whether your sentence names the allowed set or the barred one.
What does 'restricted area' mean?
A zone where an authority controls entry: military sites, airport airside, hospital wards. The same label grades documents — restricted is a low rung on several classification systems, notably NATO and older national schemes, below confidential and secret — which preserves the word's core claim: not forbidden to everyone, but open only to the cleared. Restriction always implies a list of who gets past.
Is restrict the opposite of expand?
One of its two staged opposites — expanding pushes the boundary outward while transcending rises past it altogether; both contrasts are drawn on the expand vs restrict and transcend vs restrict pages in the 'Compared' list above.
What is a restrictive clause in grammar?
A clause that restricts its noun — narrows which one is meant — and therefore takes no commas: 'the students who studied passed' (only those). Its mirror, the nonrestrictive clause, merely adds information between commas: 'the students, who studied, passed' (all of them, and by the way). Same verb, same logic: the restrictive clause fences its noun in.