tethered
Americanadjective
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fastened or confined with or as if with a rope, chain, or the like to limit the range of movement.
On this field trip, students will have the opportunity to take a ride in a tethered hot-air balloon.
Too many lawmakers are partisan, inept, or too lightly tethered to reality.
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Digital Technology. (of an electronic device) used to enable a wireless internet connection on another nearby device, often a laptop.
You can browse the web more securely using a tethered phone, because your information is being sent directly through the phone rather than over a public wireless hotspot.
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of tethered
Explanation
Tethered describes something that's tied up, like a horse that's tethered to a fence or a dog that's tethered to the person who is walking it. Whenever you confine a person or an animal to keep them in one place, they're tethered. A bank robber might leave his hostages tethered together in the vault, and you might keep your fence-jumping dog tethered to the porch when she's out in your yard. The root word is the Old Norse tjoðr, tether, which was used only as a noun to describe the rope that ties animals until the late 15th century, when the verb form developed.
Vocabulary lists containing tethered
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
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Life Is So Good
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Far from the Tree
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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.
Tethered to a small speedboat and being towed towards us was the first of nine migrant boats we would encounter during our 24-hour patrol with the Tunisian coast guard.
From BBC • Aug. 29, 2023
Tethered to IVs and fatigued with restless anticipation, Trinity Landrum distractedly nodded to the legion of scrubs scurrying in and out of her hospital room.
From Seattle Times • Jun. 3, 2023
Tethered and apart, we had our share of challenges and beautiful moments in the water off Malibu.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 7, 2022
But the Wilsons’ relationship to the Tethered — an oppressed class of people taking down their more fortunate doubles — complicates the audience’s allegiance.
From New York Times • Aug. 29, 2019
Tethered to the ground, on guard, with a very sick person to take care of.
From "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins
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.
