The urgency of the article is due to new requirements for the structure and content of a dictionary entry in the theory of modern lexicography and the need to increase the semantic capacity of the interpretation of meaning by including restrictive information. At the same time, the issue of restrictive components in lexicographic practice has not been finally resolved; however, many modern ideas can already be traced in the “Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language” by V. I. Dahl. The methodology of the study is based on the analysis of various types of fragments of a dictionary entry, presenting lexicographically significant information that cannot be deduced directly from the lexical semantics, but is significant for the correct use of the word. The article highlights the types of restrictive components presented in the dictionary. Language restrictions can be due to the language system, norm or usus. Restrictions by the system fix special types of bound meanings and reflect the reasons for the appearance of such meanings as means of secondary nomination. Restrictions by the norm fix the existence of stylistically colored meanings and set the conditions for their use. Among the systemic restrictions of Dahl’s dictionary, there are morphological restrictions, which fix the obligatory forms of syntagmatically related words by means of generalizing pronouns; syntactic restrictions accompanying syntactically bound meanings with an indication of the corresponding conditions of use; lexical restrictions outlining a list of context partners, in combination with which the interpreted meaning is realized. Restrictions of the object-logical content of a word do not affect the change in meaning in terms of marking or dependence; they fully depend on the process of categorization, by the peculiarities of delimitating certain areas of reality by this language. The extra-linguistic factor underlies the restrictions of the situational context, which verbalize information of an encyclopedic nature in the dictionary: historical, social, cultural, ideological. Restrictions of pragmatic nature are represented in the dictionary by a wide variety of emotional-expressive and functional-stylistic marks, as well as marks and comments that characterize the social differentiation of the language. A special place is occupied by restrictions that translate communicatively meaningful information about the asymmetry of social roles. © 2021 Authors. All rights reserved.