con·straint   (kən-strānt')    n.   The threat or use of force to prevent, restrict, or dictate the action or thought of others. The state of being restricted or confined within prescribed bounds: soon tired of the constraint of military life. One that restricts, limits, or regulates; a check: ignored all moral constraints in his pursuit of success. Embarrassed reserve or reticence; awkwardness: "All constraint had vanished between the two, and they began to talk" (Edith Wharton). [Middle English constreinte, from Old French, from feminine past participle of constraindre, to constrain; see constrain.]

Constraint

Con*straint"\, n. [OF. constrainte, F. constrainte.] The act of constraining, or the state of being constrained; that which compels to, or restrains from, action; compulsion; restraint; necessity.

Long imprisonment and hard constraint. --Spenser.

Not by constraint, but by my choice, I came. --Dryden.

Syn: Compulsion; violence; necessity; urgency.

Usage: Constraint, Compulsion. Constraint implies strong binding force; as, the constraint of necessity; the constraint of fear. Compulsion implies the exertion of some urgent impelling force; as, driven by compulsion. The former prevents us from acting agreeably to our wishes; the latter forces us to act contrary to our will. Compulsion is always produced by some active agent; a constraint may be laid upon us by the forms of civil society, or by other outward circumstances. --Crabb.

constraint programming, mathematics
A Boolean relation, often an equality or ineqality relation, between the values of one or more mathematical variables (often two). E.g. x>3 is a constraint on x. constraint satisfaction attempts to assign values to variables so that all constraints are true.
Usenet newsgroup: comp.constraints. FAQ.
(2002-06-08)