English · Idiom Candidate

cramp someone's style

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

To restrain or limit someone's freedom of action or expression

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

hạn chế tự do hành động hoặc biểu đạt của ai đó

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: hinder physical movement

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

‘ What's the matter — am I cramping your style?

Yes, well you'd be cramping his style wouldn't you?

British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “cramp someone's style” mean?

To restrain or limit someone's freedom of action or expression Literally: hinder physical movement

Is “cramp someone's style” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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