fetter
- a chain or shackle placed on the feet.
- Usually fetters. anything that confines or restrains: Boredom puts fetters upon the imagination.
- to put fetters upon.
- to confine; restrain.
Origin of fetter
Related Words for fettered
hinder, hog-tie, clog, chain, encumber, repress, bind, manacle, leash, check, restrict, trammel, shackle, handcuff, cuff, hobble, restrain, curb, confine, hamperExamples from the Web for fettered
Contemporary Examples of fettered
Evidently, Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz in short order made himself into a poster boy for fettered capitalism.
Historical Examples of fettered
They would not allow him to resist, but fettered him and led his spirit away.
The Chinese Fairy BookVarious
In this spirit, he was fettered with great care, and conveyed into the interior of the prison.
Barnaby RudgeCharles Dickens
Here again our legislation is fettered by ignorance and religious dogma.
The Sexual QuestionAugust Forel
Under the earth the fettered men—on the ruins of the church the singing bird.
A Son of HagarSir Hall Caine
And shall we crouch above these graves,With craven soul and fettered lip?
The Liberty MinstrelGeorge W. Clark
fetter
- (often plural) a chain or bond fastened round the ankle; shackle
- (usually plural) a check or restraintin fetters
- to restrict or confine
- to bind in fetters
Word Origin for fetter
Word Origin and History for fettered
fetter
c.1300, from Old English gefetrian (see fetter (n.)). Related: Fettered; fettering.
fetter
Old English fetor "chain or shackle for the feet," from Proto-Germanic *fetero (cf. Old Saxon feteros (plural), Middle Dutch veter "fetter," in modern Dutch "lace, string," Old High German fezzera, Old Norse fiöturr, Swedish fjätter), from PIE root *ped- "foot" (see foot (n.)). The generalized sense of "anything that shackles" had evolved in Old English. Related Fetters.