manacle

[man-uh-kuhl]

noun

1. a shackle for the hand; handcuff.

2. Usually manacles. restraints; checks.

verb (used with object)

manacled, manacling 

1. to handcuff; fetter.

2. to hamper; restrain.

   He was manacled by his inhibitions.

manacle

/ ˈmænəkəl /

noun

1. (usually plural) a shackle, handcuff, or fetter, used to secure the hands of a prisoner, convict, etc

verb

1. to put manacles on

2. to confine or constrain

Other Word Forms

• unmanacled adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of manacle¹

1275–1325; Middle English, variant of manicle < Middle French: handcuff < Latin manicula small hand, handle of a plow. See manus, -i-, -cle ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of manacle¹

C14: via Old French from Latin manicula, diminutive of manus hand

Example Sentences

“We’ll get you fixed up, Phillip,” Jack said softly as he carefully sliced through the prince’s manacles with the witch’s knife.

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Its brutal tools were whips, manacles, and floating prisons called slave ships.

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He set his hands on her shoulders, and she expected him to shove her forward into waiting manacles.

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Initially modeled in plaster and later cast in bronze, “The Freedman” portrays a formerly enslaved man clad in a loincloth, his left arm in manacles, his right breaking free from the chains of bondage.

Read more on New York Times

"And at the height of slavery, there were no white-seeming people manacled on the slave ships."

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