What does corseting mean?
Corseting is the noun form describing the act of fitting the body with a corset — an undergarment stiffened with boning and laced snugly around the torso to shape and support the waist and bust. The word is most often encountered in discussions of historical dress, particularly the tightly laced fashions of the nineteenth century, when corseting was both a mark of respectability and a subject of medical controversy. By extension, corseting has developed a figurative meaning: the constriction or over-regulation of anything flexible, such as artistic expression, political debate, or personal style. A critic might describe rigid editorial rules as a form of corseting on writers' voices. Because the practice itself has faded from everyday life, the literal sense now carries a period flavor, while the figurative sense keeps the word current. Its connotations are largely negative — restriction, discomfort, imposed conformity — making it a vivid choice when one wants to characterize constraint as bodily rather than merely abstract.
nounThe action or practice of fitting a person with a corset or binding the body tightly; more broadly, any act of constricting or restraining something.
- The act of fitting someone with a corset or lacing the body tightly.
- Figuratively, the restrictive shaping or confining of something non-physical, such as speech, art, or behavior.
"The tight corseting fashionable in the Victorian era was blamed for a range of health complaints."
"Historic photographs show the extreme corseting once considered essential for a fashionable silhouette."
"Critics complained that the studio's strict guidelines amounted to a kind of creative corseting."
For centuries women were told that corseting 'supported' them — while doctors blamed the same lacing for squashed ribs and fainting fits.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of corseting
The word derives from corset, borrowed into English from French in the early seventeenth century. French corset is a diminutive of corps, meaning 'body', which descends from the Latin corpus. This makes corseting a cousin of such body-related words as corpse, corporeal, corporate, and corsage, all tracing back to the same Latin root.
Related word forms
How corseting is actually used
Primarily used in historical or fashion contexts discussing Victorian and Edwardian dress; in modern usage it appears most often in figurative senses describing restriction or constraint. Register is neutral to formal.
Easily confused with corseting
Corsetry refers collectively to corsets and their design or manufacture, whereas corseting is the act or practice of wearing or applying a corset.