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)

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

• fetterer noun
• fetterless adjective

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

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

Huang is something else: a person at war with all the constraints that would fetter him to anything less than an identity capacious enough to contain all his contradictions and ambivalence.

From New York Times • Feb. 3, 2015

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

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