rein in
verb
Simple meaning
Stop or slow up one's horse or oneself by or as if by pulling the reins.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
rayninSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɹeɪnɪn
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Stop or slow up one's horse or oneself by or as if by pulling the reins
“They reined in in front of the post office.”
Stop or check by or as if by a pull at the reins
“He reined in his horses in front of the post office.”
figurative
To stop or slow something, by exercising control.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Stop or slow up one's horse or oneself by or as if by pulling the reins
Used this way, rein in is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.