stricture

A rule restricting behaviour or action.

To his eyes it had no attraction; it savoured of simony, and was likely to bring down upon him harder and more deserved strictures than any he had yet received: he positively declined to become vicar of Puddingdale under any circumstances.

1931 Edgar Wallace: Again Sanders "That is a matter for you to discuss with the Government," said Sanders, in his iciest tone. "I am only authorized to collect twenty-eight thousand. I will note your strictures and report them to Whitehall." "I'm passing no strictures said the Major, hastily. He had been warned against Sanders...

A general state of restrictiveness on behavior, action, or ideology.

I just couldn't take the stricture of that place a single day more.

For many young people throughout Britain in the 1970s, Northern Soul became a truly alternative lifestyle with the rites and values of the scene replacing many of the traditional strictures of society.

A sternly critical remark or review.

When he read the poem to his parents, upon its conclusion, both were much impressed by it, though his father made severe strictures upon its lack of polish, its terminal inconcision, and its vagueness of thought.

Abnormal narrowing of a canal or duct in the body.

Even in the brief moment of his entrance into the magnificence of Anthony Harding's home he had felt a strange little stricture of the throat—a choking, half-suffocating sensation.

Strictness.

a man of stricture and firm abstinence