Skip to definition.
Get the FREE one-click dictionary software for Windows or the iPhone/iPad and Android apps


Adjective: inhibited  in'hi-bi-tid
  1. Held back, restrained or prevented
    "in certain conditions previously inhibited conditioned reactions can reappear"
Verb: inhibit  in'hi-bit
  1. Prohibit, forbid, or prevent from doing something
    "Contact between the young was inhibited by strict social customs"
     
  2. (chemistry) limit, block, or decrease the action or function of
    "inhibit the action of the enzyme"; "inhibit the rate of a chemical reaction"
     
  3. Consciously restrain from showing; of emotions, desires, impulses, or behaviour
    - bottle up, suppress
     
  4. Make (someone) self-conscious and as a result unable to act naturally
    "his father's cold and distant demeanour inhibited him emotionally"

See also: pent-up, repressed, reserved, restrained, smothered, stifled, strangled, suppressed

Type of: discomfit, discompose, disconcert, entrammel [literary], fetter [literary], forbid, foreclose, forestall, hinder, impede, preclude, prevent, trammel [literary], untune, upset

Antonym: uninhibited

Encyclopedia: Inhibit