noun

inhibition

in-hih-BISH-un/ˌɪnhɪˈbɪʃn/

A restraint that slows or prevents an activity.

Her inhibition restrains her singing when an audience replaces the privacy she enjoys alone.

A compact comparison shows social inhibition limiting expression: a woman sings expansively alone but becomes visibly self-restrained when a friend invites her to sing with an audience present.

Etymology

inLatinin, on

+hibLatinto hold

+itionLatinact or process

The underlying image is holding something in or back. The noun named an authoritative prohibition and later a psychological check on an impulse, connecting external restraint with limits on one's own expression or action.

In context

Theology of the Body Institute14:16

Chastity is not a blind inhibition of physical impulses such that the values of the body and of sex are pushed down into the subconscious

Chastity Like You've Never Heard It. (What Is True Chastity?)

More examples

She loses her inhibitions when she sings with friends.
The drug causes inhibition of the enzyme's activity.
He speaks openly, without inhibition, about his feelings.

Forms

inhibition · inhibitions

inhibit verb — To hold back or prevent an activity.

inhibitory adjective — Tending to restrain or prevent activity.

Similar words

restraint: Can be deliberate self-control rather than an involuntary inner barrier.
hindrance: Emphasizes something that makes progress harder, not necessarily stopping it.