adjective

• Excessively strict.

  ‘an over-strict upbringing’

  More example sentences

  • ‘an over-strict disciplinarian’
  • ‘This is an over-strict doctrine which neither reflects culpability nor serves the goal of crime prevention.’
  • ‘The beneficial effect to the economy could be negated if over-strict anti tax-avoidance measures are included in the Bill.’
  • ‘She moved toward the nearby door, standing to one side of it, and automatically, prompted by the almost forgotten reactions of an over-strict childhood, he held it open for her.’
  • ‘She was a cruel and abusive mother, over-strict and something of a 'clean freak'.’
  • ‘We have many reasons to believe the contest rules were overstrict.’
  • ‘He was negligent in financial matters, had erected unnecessary buildings at the college's expense, and was an overstrict disciplinarian.’

  Synonyms

  carping, captious, overcritical, fault-finding, hair-splitting, cavilling, niggling, quibbling, pedantic, pettifogging, fussy, finicky, over-censorious, over-exacting, over-rigorous, over-particular, over-strict