fetter

American  

[fet-er] / ˈfɛt ər /

noun

1. a chain or shackle placed on the feet.

2. Usually fetters. anything that confines or restrains.

   Boredom puts fetters upon the imagination.

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verb (used with object)

• fetters,
  present (3rd person singular)
• fettered,
  past participle,  past
• fettering
  present participle

1. to put fetters upon.

2. to confine; restrain.

fetter British  

/ ˈfɛtə /

noun

1. (often plural) a chain or bond fastened round the ankle; shackle

2. (usually plural) a check or restraint

   in fetters

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verb

1. to restrict or confine

2. to bind in fetters

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• fetterer
  noun
• fetterless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• fettering
  present
• fettered
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• fetter
  simple
• fetters
  simple
• have fettered
  perfect
• has fettered
  perfect
• am fettering
  progressive
• are fettering
  progressive
• is fettering
  progressive
• have been fettering
  perfect progressive
• has been fettering
  perfect progressive

Past

• fettered
  simple
• had fettered
  perfect
• was fettering
  progressive
• were fettering
  progressive
• had been fettering
  perfect progressive

Future

• will fetter
  simple
• will have fettered
  perfect
• will be fettering
  progressive
• will have been fettering
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of fetter

before 900; Middle English, Old English feter; cognate with Old High German fezzera, Old Norse fjǫturr; akin to foot

Explanation

A fetter is a shackle or chain that is attached to someone’s ankles. To fetter someone is to restrict their movement, either literally or metaphorically. You might feel fettered by your parents' rules, even without the chains. A fetter is anything that secures and limits the movement of the feet and legs of a prisoner. To fetter, the verb, could be used literally: the prison wardens would fetter the chain gangs who built many of the railroads in the United States, but it usually means something has been done to restrain someone’s behavior: "we finally managed to fetter our sons’ computer use with bribery."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fetter fetters fettered fettering

The clarity and lack of fetter is characteristic of Ullmann’s way of seeing the world in prose and, in this case, of seeing the self as a third person.

From New York Times ● Jan. 10, 2019

At another point, the actor becomes one of two mortarboard-wearing orators who pull at the straps that fetter two shocked listeners.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 19, 2016

And the commission stated it was not seeking to fetter the charity's discretion to fund Cage "for all time regardless of changing circumstances".

From BBC ● Oct. 21, 2015

Not only did I beat the seasons, the Somerset clay, and the confusing, unpredictable temperaments of my plants, I overcame Walter’s dogged campaign to rein me in, to fetter my unexpected, late-flowering creativity.

From Slate ● Mar. 18, 2015

In the black iron fetter about his wrist, the ruby seemed to pulse.

From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin

“We seek a new revolution,” he said, “not less important, perhaps, in its consequences than that of 1776—a revolution in letters; a shaking off of the fetters of the mind.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025

"I just couldn't break away from the fetters."

From Reuters ● Apr. 13, 2023

Its stage is where King Kong broke his fetters in the 1933 movie.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 8, 2023

Through religion, we are often invited to relive a past trauma as if it is unfolding perpetually in the present; and through the repetition of that trauma, transcend the fetters of its pain.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 8, 2021

Despite his fetters, he manages to sway lightly back and forth.

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

Both were fettered by entrenched social expectations, leaving little room for anyone who wanted to chart a different course.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 8, 2026

New emblem’s meh, the ex-term smelt; The bevy, recent-Red-Type-Pelt — They’re fettered, hexed; the shell needs shed.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 10, 2022

Despite efforts from the Valkyries and Odin’s ravens, this Viking action art piece is fettered to the ground by the demands of the studio gods.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 18, 2022

But because one’s body is not as free as it was, does it follow that the mind should be so fettered as well?

From New York Times ● Dec. 14, 2020

On the ground, the jockey was fettered and muted, moving in slow motion, the world a sensory vacuum after the tenfold high of racing speed.

From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand

In fact, this is not aid but a handout of leftovers from the master's table made conditional upon fettering obligations .

From Time Magazine Archive

With iron censorship fettering the Press last week, shocking reports circulated by word of mouth throughout the Peninsula and the Isles of Greece.

From Time Magazine Archive

And as he monologued he was aware of that fettering, overmastering force which visits youth but once—the abnegation of self before that which is.

From A Transient Guest and Other Episodes by Edgar Saltus

These prophecies have not for their vision the fettering of the world and reducing it to tameness by means of a close-linked power forged in the factory of a political steel trust.

From Creative Unity by Rabindranath Tagore

But you ought to realize that he's fettering you, undoing you utterly, seeking through egotism, to destroy your inalienable self.

From Fifty Contemporary One-Act Plays by Various