untethered

British

/ ʌnˈtɛðəd /

adjective

not tied or limited with or as if with a tether

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

Finally, longer-term inflation expectations would need to show signs of becoming untethered, he wrote in a research note Friday.

From Barron's • Mar. 20, 2026

"Your wild imagination, your brave untethered womanhood, your ferocious gentleness is a guiding light to me."

From BBC • Mar. 2, 2026

In this AI bubble, the prices of AI-dependent stocks have become untethered from realistic projections of future profits.

From MarketWatch • Feb. 6, 2026

“To many consumers, the U.K. economy is beginning to resemble an untethered boat drifting slowly out to sea,” Bellamy said.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 23, 2026

First, because he wasn’t the type, and second, because he finally understood how fragile she was, how unmoored and untethered, like a shiny balloon floating through the air, no hand to steady her.

From "Bone Gap" by Laura Ruby

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023