strait-laced

strait-laced (comparative more strait-laced, superlative most strait-laced)

1. Alternative spelling of straight-laced
2. Bound with stays.
   • 1809, John Locke, Some thoughts concerning education, page 16:

     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.

   • 1816, Thomas Bayly Howell, A Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason and Other Crimes and Misdemeanors:

     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.

   • 2000, John Lyly, G. K. Hunter, David M. Bevington, Galatea: Midas, →ISBN, page 207:

     High she was in the instep, but short in the heel; strait-laced, but loose-bodied.

• straitjacket