To restrain, hold back, or inhibit; to prevent or suppress from action.
From Latin cohibere, from co- (together) + habere (to hold). This formal word entered English in the 1500s through legal and philosophical texts, meaning to hold in check or keep from doing something.
Cohibit is so rarely used now that even dictionaries struggle with it, but neuroscientists describe how your prefrontal cortex 'cohibits' impulsive actions—your brain literally holds your impulses back before they become actions.
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