curb

Word family

• kerb
  nounB1
• uncurbed
  adjectiveC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

'Curb', 'restrain', 'limit', and 'check' all involve keeping something within bounds, but they differ in tone and scope. 'Curb' is the most common in everyday news and policy contexts — it suggests reducing an unwanted trend or behaviour (e.g. curbing inflation, curbing violence). 'Restrain' is more formal and often personal, referring to holding back a person or an emotion (e.g. restraining an angry crowd). 'Limit' is the broadest and most neutral; it can apply to anything from speed limits to limiting screen time. 'Check' implies stopping growth or progress that has already begun (e.g. checking the spread of a disease). For example: the government curbed public spending (reduced the increase), but it did not limit it entirely. The police checked the riot (halted its spread), whereas parents restrain their children from running into the street.

Common collocations

Etymology

The word 'curb' comes from the Old French 'courber', meaning 'to bend', which traces back to the Latin 'curvare' ('to curve'). It originally referred to a curved strap or chain put on a horse's bit to control the animal — a literal 'curb' on the horse's movement. By the 1500s, the word had developed the broader meaning of anything that restrains or holds back. The road-edge sense comes from 'curbstone', a stone set along the edge of a street. In British English, the road-edge meaning took the separate spelling 'kerb' around the 1600s.