strait-laced

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.

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

But the very existence of the film, which is loosely based on a seemingly strait-laced community college instructor who moonlighted as a fake assassin for the Houston police, proves just how much they fascinate us.

From New York Times • Jun. 7, 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

I did not cry even when I stood watching him being lowered into his family’s strait-laced burial ground outside of Boston.

From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles