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.”