put a lid on

idiom

1

: to stop (something) from growing or becoming worse

These changes are intended to put a lid on rising medical costs.

2

informal : to stop doing or saying (something)

He angrily told them to put a lid on their complaints.

I'm tired of listening to your complaints, so just put a lid on it!

3

: to cause the end or failure of (something)

The government used the army to put a lid on the rebellion.

Examples of put a lid on in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

For O'Brien, her concerns focused on how extending hours at Cholla Library could bring back problems when property owners had only recently put a lid on some of the conflicts dealing with loitering. —Taylor Seely, The Arizona Republic, 4 Mar. 2024

Do not put a lid on the container, as rosettes will become soggy. —Mary G. Pepitone, Kansas City Star, 30 Jan. 2024

Barclays has been trying to put a lid on costs including by cutting bonuses earlier this year. —Byprarthana Prakash, Fortune Europe, 24 Nov. 2023

Google quietly planned to put a lid on Apple’s search ambitions. —Nico Grant, New York Times, 23 Oct. 2023

There’s also the fact that, in general, the fall season into the winter season sees a decline in demand for gas as people are driving less, which helps put a lid on prices, says Devin Gladden, a spokesperson for the American Automobile Association. —Mallika Mitra, wsj.com, 18 Oct. 2023

But the chronic selling pressure when Americans retire in waves, as is currently happening with the baby boomer generation, could have put a lid on stock-market returns for years. —Russ Wiles, The Arizona Republic, 16 July 2023

In addition, a flood of new supply into global markets, together with China’s high savings, put a lid on global inflation. —Barry Eichengreen, Foreign Affairs, 10 July 2023

That increase in the cost of credit has caused shocks in the banking sector and, for a while, put a lid on the housing market. —Talmon Joseph Smith, New York Times, 7 July 2023