: abnormal dread of being in closed or narrow spaces
2
: a feeling of discomfort or discontent caused by being in a limiting or restrictive situation or environment
While recovering in the hospital, she recognizes the claustrophobia of her working-class life, shared with a suffocatingly affectionate mother and a dud of a dad. Barbara Tritel
She doesn't go in elevators because of her claustrophobia. the claustrophobia of small-town life
Recent Examples on the WebThe psychological claustrophobia is captured in David Mauer’s production design, which lays out this adolescent bunker with minute attention to detail.Los Angeles Times, 28 June 2022 The raging hurricane outside intensifies the claustrophobia of being trapped inside of a house with seven of your closest frenemies. Danielle Momoh, BostonGlobe.com, 8 Aug. 2022 Ben Stiller and Adam Scott discuss the claustrophobia of the ‘Severance’ set, Innies and Outties.Los Angeles Times, 9 June 2022 Director Ridley Scott embraces the claustrophobia, embedding his Xenomorph into the fabric of the ship and, by extension, our nightmares. Randall Colburn, EW.com, 16 May 2022 What Moore’s film strives toward, and touches only erratically, is an emotional claustrophobia to match its physical squeeze.The New Yorker, 18 Mar. 2022 For Abramowicz, reinforcing a player's identity beyond sport is central to countering the claustrophobia of their working lives. Simon Willis, Fortune, 14 May 2022 The claustrophobia will be familiar to anyone who has shared a living space that has suddenly become a schoolroom and a home office. Charles Mcnultytheater Critic, Los Angeles Times, 25 Mar. 2022 According to Gallup, in 2019, 65 percent of American adults drank alcohol; in 2021, even after the claustrophobia and worry of the plague years, that number went down to 60 percent. Virginia Heffernan, Wired, 19 Apr. 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
New Latin, from Latin claustrum + New Latin -phobia