[f. as prec. + -ING2.]
1. That constrains.
1602. Carew, Cornwall, 127 a. Not through any constrayning necessitie or constraintiue vowe.
1651. Hobbes, Govt. & Soc., xii. § 4. 178. That the constraining Power [of Government] … should be left wholly to the Lawes themselves.
1784. Cowper, Tirocin., 861. Free, too, and under no constraining force.
1856. Tait & Steele, Dynamics of Particle (1871), 184. To find the point where the particle will leave the constraining curve. Ibid., 386. When there are … constraining forces; such as when two or more of the particles are connected by inextensible strings, etc.
† 2. Of medicines: Constringing or drawing together, astringent. Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VII. lxix. (1495), 289. The leche vsith constraynynge and dryenge medycynes.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 161. If þou leidist þerto ony constreyning þingis þe akynge wolde be þe more.
