restricting

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of restrict.

   The government is restricting travel between the two regions.

   Restricting access to the files prevented any further leaks.

   Note

   Here the -ing form is still a verb, and it keeps a verb's habits. After be it builds the progressive, and as a gerund it heads a noun phrase with its own object, as in restricting access. It also carries the mathematician's use, as in restricting a function to a subset of its domain. Once it stops taking an object, it has drifted into the adjective.

2. 2
   adjective

   Acting to limit something or keep it within fixed bounds.

   The contract included several restricting clauses about resale and transfer.

   A restricting diet left him weak and short-tempered by the second week.

   Similarrestrictive, confining

   Note

   The adjective shows itself by grading: one thing can be more restricting than another, or the most restricting of all, and the verb form cannot be compared that way. The object gives a second test. A restricting clause limits without saying what it limits, while a clause restricting resale is still the verb at work. Before a noun it describes the thing that does the limiting, such as clauses, diets or terms.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2