straight-laced

[streyt-leyst] / ˈstreɪtˈleɪst /

ADJECTIVE

strait-laced

Synonyms

WEAK

Victorian austere goody-two-shoes old-maidish priggish prim prissy proper prudish puritanical rigid square starchy stiff strict stuffy uptight

Antonyms

STRONGEST

permissive

WEAK

broad-minded

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Mr. Johnson’s previous film was the slightly more straight-laced “BlackBerry,” about the rise and fall of the once-ubiquitous device.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 12, 2026

“It’s a bonus when I’m able to stretch myself and feel like I’m being challenged,” Poulter says of his character, the most straight-laced figure in the film, but imbued by Poulter with a surprising vulnerability.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 8, 2025

But they’ve also tried to be funny, whereas LinkedIn is a bit more straight-laced: There is no such thing as Weird LinkedIn.

From Slate • Nov. 10, 2023

Did you read that New Yorker piece about how it was all made-up and it was this very straight-laced?

From Salon • Apr. 20, 2023

But even truth at times must be suppressed, and though this may be considered by the straight-laced and sickly minded to be lying by implication, it is not so.

From The Life of a Celebrated Buccaneer A Page of Past History for the Use of the Children of To-day by Clynton, Richard