Hemmen

Hemmen is a Dutch verb meaning to curb, check, or restrain. It is used to describe actions intended to limit the growth, spread, or intensity of something, often through policy, regulation, or deliberate restraint. The construction commonly involves an infinitive clause, as in de inflatie te hemmen or het groeitempo te hemmen.

Common contexts include economics, policy, and public safety. For example, governments may seek to hemmen inflation or rising costs, while regulators aim to hemmen market risks or illegal activities. In social policy, authorities talk about hemmen criminal activity or social problems. In environmental discussions, measures to hemmen pollution or deforestation are described in terms of slowing or containing impact.

Hemmen is broader than the closely related remmen, which more often denotes physical braking or an immediate slowing of motion. While both can describe restraint, hemmen typically refers to longer-term containment or a policy-driven effort, whereas remmen is more literal and mechanical. In practice, hemmen can be used metaphorically to describe efforts to curb trends, processes, or phenomena rather than just to stop them outright.

See also: befam, beperken, beteugelen. Notes: hemmen appears predominantly in formal or administrative language and is common in written policy discussions and media reporting about regulatory measures. The term is primarily used in Dutch and may appear in Dutch-language journals, reports, and parliamentary texts.