noun
- the act of inhibiting.
- the state of being inhibited.
- something that inhibits; constraint.
- Psychology.
- the blocking or holding back of one psychological process by another.
- inappropriate conscious or unconscious restraint or suppression of behavior, as sexual behavior, often due to guilt or fear produced by past punishment, or sometimes considered a dispositional trait.
- Physiology.
- a restraining, arresting, or checking of the action of an organ or cell.
- the reduction of a reflex or other activity as the result of an antagonistic stimulation.
- a state created at synapses making them less excitable by other sources of stimulation.
- Chemistry. a stoppage or decrease in the rate of action of a chemical reaction.
- English Ecclesiastical Law. an order, especially from a bishop, suspending a priest or an incumbent from the performance of duties.
noun
- the act of inhibiting or the condition of being inhibited
- psychol
- a mental state or condition in which the varieties of expression and behaviour of an individual become restricted
- the weakening of a learned response usually as a result of extinction or because of the presence of a distracting stimulus
- (in psychoanalytical theory) the unconscious restraining of an impulseSee also repression
- the process of stopping or retarding a chemical reaction
- physiol the suppression of the function or action of an organ or part, as by stimulation of its nerve supply
- Church of England an episcopal order suspending an incumbent
late 14c., “formal prohibition; interdiction of legal proceedings by authority;” also, the document setting forth such a prohibition, from Old French inibicion and directly from Latin inhibitionem (nominative inhibitio) “a restraining,” from past participle stem of inhibere “to hold in, hold back, keep back,” from in- “in, on” (see in- (2)) + habere “to hold” (see habit). Psychological sense of “involuntary check on an expression of an impulse” is from 1876.
n.
- The act of inhibiting or the state of being inhibited.
- Something that restrains, blocks, or suppresses.
- The conscious or unconscious restraint of a behavioral process, a desire, or an impulse.
- Any of a variety of processes that are associated with the gradual attenuation, masking, and extinction of a previously conditioned response.
- The condition in which or the process by which a reaction is inhibited.
- The condition in which or the process by which an enzyme is inhibited.
- The blocking or limiting of the activity of an organ, tissue, or cell of the body, caused by the action of a nerve or neuron or by the release of a substance such as a hormone or neurotransmitter. Compare excitation.
A personal hindrance to activity or expression. For example, fear of contracting cancer might serve as an inhibition against smoking.