cramp someone's style

To inhibit or interfere with what one wants to do. Ugh, having a test on Monday is really cramping my style. I just want to party all weekend! My parents coming to stay with me this weekend is totally going to cramp my style. When am I supposed to get anything done?

Restrict or prevent someone from free action or expression, as in It really cramps my style when Mom hovers around me while I'm making dinner. Although in 1819 Charles Lamb complained that using different inks cramped his style of writing, the present sense of this colloquial term dates only from the early 1900s.

If someone or something cramps your style, they prevent you from behaving freely in the way that you want. You two relax and celebrate on your own. You don't want us oldies cramping your style. Like more and more women with good jobs, independent spirits and high standards, she believes marriage would cramp her style.

To restrict someone’s natural actions; to prevent someone from doing his or her best. This seemingly up-to-date locution was first used by Charles Lamb in 1819. He was alluding to writer’s cramp, which constricted the natural flow of one’s pen. Figuratively the term came into use in the early twentieth century. W. Somerset Maugham used it in his early spy novel, Ashenden or: The British Agent (1927): “I can’t help thinking it would cramp your style.”