strait-laced

At 27, with nearly zero name recognition, he horrified his then-agent by turning down a $10,000-a-week TV gig as a strait-laced psychiatrist to do a Mike Nichols theater production for just $110.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2025

"Next to the vomiting, gurning, maniacally grinning Keaton, she can’t help but seem a little bland and strait-laced."

From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2024

At the center of the show was the relationship between Richie and Fonzie, the strait-laced kid and the guy with the jacket.

From New York Times ● Jan. 15, 2024

In contrast to strait-laced Seattle, where suds stopped flowing at 2 a.m. and never on Sundays, Georgetown’s unregulated taverns, eateries and roadhouses were open round-the-clock, serving laborers the hoppy product of their labors.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 7, 2023

It seemed more sedate than I remembered it, more perpendicular and strait-laced, with narrower windows and shinier woodwork, as though a coat of varnish had been put over everything for better preservation.

From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles