Listen to the author reading this blog post.

by Kate Woodford

As I research the language for these posts, I’m often surprised by the number of words and phrases in English for the same basic concept. This week’s subject – the language of limiting things – is no exception.

There are several single-word near-synonyms for the verb limit, many of which have the essential meaning of ‘control the amount or level of something, keeping it down’. For example, we can use the verb restrict. (The noun is restriction):

The proposed bill would restrict the number of teenage passengers allowed in a car with a teenage driver.

Speed restrictions were widely in force throughout the county.

The verb restrain is similar in meaning but suggests that the thing being limited is currently increasing too quickly. (The noun is restraint):

The question is how to restrain inflation while simultaneously encouraging economic growth.

Manufacturers have urged the government to impose restraints on imports.

Meanwhile, if the level of something that is not wanted, such as inflation or carbon emissions, is limited, we often say that it is curbed. (The noun is also curb.)

The government has failed to take sufficient steps to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

There are calls for stronger curbs on smoking in public places.

A sense of the verb check is used in a similar way and the noun check features in the phrase hold/keep something in check, meaning ‘limit something’:

Grazing animals are used to check the growth of trees and bushes.

The presence of these top-level predators keeps the population of deer in check.

An official upper limit on the amount or number of something can be referred to as a cap. We say that a cap is imposed, put, or set on something. The noun ceiling is used in the same way:

The purpose of the bill is to put a cap on fees.

We need a system that sets a cap on carbon emissions.

Their intention was to impose a ceiling on local authority expenditure.

We also use cap as a verb meaning ‘to put an official upper limit on something’:

University tuition fees have been capped at 6 percent for the past three years.

I’ll finish with a phrasal verb in this area. To keep something down is to control its size or level, preventing it from increasing:

They rely on cheap labour to keep their productions costs down.

That concludes my post on limiting things. I hope you found it useful. Do feel free to suggest any other areas of the English language you would like to know more about.