Stricture

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. Strictness. [Obs.] A man of stricture and firm abstinence. Shak.

2. A stroke; a glance; a touch. [Obs.] Sir M. Hale.

3. A touch of adverse criticism; censure. [I have] given myself the liberty of these strictures by way of reflection on all and every passage. Hammond.

4. A localized morbid contraction of any passage of the body. Cf. Organic stricture, and Spasmodic stricture, under Organic, and Spasmodic. Arbuthnot.