Definition of "stricture" [stric•ture]

• A restraint, limit, or restriction. (noun)
• An adverse remark or criticism; censure. (noun)
• Pathology An abnormal narrowing of a duct or passage. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The same stricture is applicable to those who define God to be mere Being;"
• "Indeed if applied to the historian E.P. Thompson (whom Garton Ash mentions but whose research techniques he clearly cannot reproduce), this stricture translates into a view that The Making of the English Working Class may be fatally flawed because its author wasn't present during the Chartist era."
• "Well I think, Judy, this problem is called a stricture where there can be scarring around the connection between the stomach pouch and the intestines and often this can be relieved by a procedure called endoscopy where the surgeon goes in and actually stretches that area."