strait-laced meaning: definition, quotations

strait-laced

adj

Bound with stays.

And if women were themselves to frame the bodies of their children in their wombs, as they 4 often endeavour to mend their shapes when they are out, we should as certainly have no perfect children born, as we have few well-shaped that are strait-laced, or much tampered with.1809, John Locke, Some thoughts concerning education, page 16:
Juryman. My lord, I desire to know whether her stays were laced? Dell. Yes, she was laced. Mr. Cowper. If I take you right, you say she was strait-laced? Dell. Her stays were laced.1816, Thomas Bayly Howell, A Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason and Other Crimes and Misdemeanors:

1 more example

High she was in the instep, but short in the heel; strait-laced, but loose-bodied.2000, John Lyly, G. K. Hunter, David M. Bevington, Galatea: Midas, →ISBN, page 207:

Alternative Alternative spelling of straight-laced.