tether
Americannoun
-
tethers
plural
-
a rope, chain, or the like, by which an animal is fastened to a fixed object so as to limit its range of movement.
-
the utmost length to which one can go in action; the utmost extent or limit of ability or resources.
verb (used with object)
-
tethers,
present (3rd person singular)
-
tethered,
past participle, past
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tethering
present participle
-
to fasten or confine with or as if with a tether.
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Digital Technology. to use (an electronic device, usually a smartphone or tablet) to enable a wireless internet connection on another nearby device, often a laptop.
There's no Wi-Fi, so I'll have to tether my phone to my laptop.
verb (used without object)
-
tethers,
present (3rd person singular)
-
tethered,
past participle, past
-
tethering
present participle
idioms
noun
-
a restricting rope, chain, etc, by which an animal is tied to a particular spot
-
the range of one's endurance, etc
-
distressed or exasperated to the limit of one's endurance
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
tethersimple
-
tetherssimple
-
have tetheredperfect
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has tetheredperfect
-
am tetheringprogressive
-
are tetheringprogressive
-
is tetheringprogressive
-
have been tetheringperfect progressive
-
has been tetheringperfect progressive
Past
-
tetheredsimple
-
had tetheredperfect
-
was tetheringprogressive
-
were tetheringprogressive
-
had been tetheringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of tether
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English (noun); compare Old Norse tjōthr, Dutch tuier
Explanation
Both a verb and a noun, tether keeps things tied together, or is the tie itself. Remember, when you tether that chair to those balloons, use a strong tether. You don't want to drop from the sky because you tied them together using a cheap piece of rope. Think of the childhood game tether-ball. The ball is tethered to a pole by a tether. Tether usually refers to a rope or a chain, but it can also refer to an invisible bond or link. For example, the Internet can serve as a tether that links you to your pen pal in Germany. The love between a mother and her child keeps them tethered to each other for a lifetime. And whenever astronauts go for jaunts outside the space station, they tether themselves to the station using wires and a hook.
Vocabulary lists containing tether
The Cay
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"The Odyssey" by Homer, Books 19–24
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"Hitching a Ride"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The findings, published in Current Biology, suggest that the spiral forms as the embryo's body rapidly lengthens while its gut acts as a tether.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 1, 2026
At the film’s aching core is the romantic tether between the boys that refuses to die even in the face of gory attacks, painful betrayals and even uncertainty among the two of them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026
The drone that led Gauntlet I was Shrike, a first-person-view, or FPV, strike drone using a 12-mile fiber-optic tether.
From Barron's ● Apr. 28, 2026
Crunch, as a sensation, sometimes works like a gentle tether back to appetite.
From Salon ● Jan. 29, 2026
It’s like I’m on a spacewalk and somebody is sawing through the tether connecting me to the mother ship.
From "Shine!" by J.J. and Chris Grabenstein
But the way it tethers its bruised healers to the human condition’s laws of gravity is potent medicine for coping.
From Salon ● Feb. 7, 2026
This new ordinance tethers future minimum wage increases to the rate of inflation.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 2, 2024
His approach tethers DNA probes dubbed "Inverse Molecular Sentinels" to the points of star-shaped gold nanoparticles.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 13, 2024
And then when you factor our own story into what this piece already is, it tethers us to these characters in ways that feel very personal.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2023
The girl’s spirit shimmered above her, connected to her body by a dozen delicate white tethers, like the whiskery roots of a mushroom.
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
It means you can stream VR games wirelessly from your PC in high quality without being tethered by a cable, and it works well.
From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026
The underwater drone, tethered to the ship with cables and about the size of a small car, was just above the ocean floor as the researchers and pilots searched for furrows potentially left by whales.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2026
As for Mr. Boorman, who was wearing such protection, he says he later discovered that it wasn’t tethered to anything.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
"People are moving away from the traditional mindset that certain jobs must be tethered to a specific gender," Chen Ning, the 27-year-old founder, told AFP.
From Barron's ● Jul. 8, 2026
The great gray hippogriff, Buckbeak, was tethered in front of Hagrid’s cabin.
From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
But by tethering interpretation to statutory text and congressional intent while applying it to the real-world cases of an ever-evolving society, the new regime curbs the unintended consequences of law’s diverging from reality.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 24, 2026
Colonel Parker, Elvis’s manager, kept his cash cow on a leash, tethering him first to middling B-pictures, then to casinos.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 19, 2026
It may now be tethering on the edge of a bigger drop.
From MarketWatch ● Jan. 29, 2026
"The fact that our unbiased screen for mitochondrial tethering to the cytoskeleton identified a protein linked to neurodegenerative disease suggests that mitochondrial stabilization is a critical element in neuronal function and health," described Dr. Rangaraju.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 4, 2024
This was the moment of truth, the tethering of a truth and a he.
From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
