manacle

American  

[man-uh-kuhl] / ˈmæn ə kəl /

noun

1. a shackle for the hand; handcuff.

2. Usually manacles. restraints; checks.

---

verb (used with object)

• manacles,
  present (3rd person singular)
• manacled,
  past participle,  past
• manacling
  present participle

1. to handcuff; fetter.

2. to hamper; restrain.

   He was manacled by his inhibitions.

manacle British  

/ 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

Derived Forms

• unmanacled
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• manacling
  present
• manacled
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• manacle
  simple
• manacles
  simple
• have manacled
  perfect
• has manacled
  perfect
• am manacling
  progressive
• are manacling
  progressive
• is manacling
  progressive
• have been manacling
  perfect progressive
• has been manacling
  perfect progressive

Past

• manacled
  simple
• had manacled
  perfect
• was manacling
  progressive
• were manacling
  progressive
• had been manacling
  perfect progressive

Future

• will manacle
  simple
• will have manacled
  perfect
• will be manacling
  progressive
• will have been manacling
  perfect progressive

---

Etymology

Origin of manacle

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

---

Explanation

If a police officer has to manacle your hands behind your back, you're in big trouble. That's just a fancy way of saying that you've been handcuffed. Used as a noun, manacle is a synonym for shackle, meaning "a metal chain or band, used to fasten someone’s hands or ankles together." You’re more likely to see the noun form of this word in its plural form manacles, since — like socks or mittens — a pair is usually required. (Quite unlike socks or mittens, manacles are not at all comfortable or pleasant to wear.) You can say that someone who has been restrained using manacles has been manacled.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

manacle manacles manacled manacling

Mostly I just fret, worry-beading minor problems and irritations until they form a manacle of woe.

From New York Times ● Jan. 5, 2019

He even got a leg manacle removed so that he could move freely about the courtroom.

From Time Magazine Archive

Within these limitations, the show covers an astonishing range, which should prove to even the most doctrinaire of abstractionists that an attachment to reality is not necessarily a manacle for the mind.

From Time Magazine Archive

Harry saw his bald tail whip through the manacle on Ron’s outstretched arm and heard a scurrying through the grass.

From "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling

The prince's fingers locked on Jemmy's arm like a manacle.

From "The Whipping Boy" by Sid Fleischman

Just past midnight on a cold, wet November night in 1904, 13-year-olds William Kiger and Albert Cook, wearing only their skivvies and chained together with ankle manacles, cradled the shackles to stop them clanking.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 29, 2022

Only after a moment do you see the iron manacles between the waves — a Romantic liberty Turner took.

From New York Times ● Apr. 7, 2022

Winters, we can look across the vast eastward miles, and regard with pity the icebound, housebound millions in the manacles of winter.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 29, 2022

In so doing, he has posed the question of what mind-forg'd manacles keep three, British-born, young men enslaved to a pair of unscrupulous builders.

From BBC ● Dec. 15, 2020

The bigger ones had the collar, much thicker chains, and chain-like arms that ended in open manacles.

From "Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky" by Kwame Mbalia

He stays gruff, of course, but you sense that Ray is as manacled by his authoritarian role as Colin literally is in his hungry, slurping devotion to his master.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 5, 2026

When Martin does depict a full human body, such as the manacled one in the potent “Enslaved,” it’s in the form of a black or brown stick figure with a circular head.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 30, 2020

There were no triumphal demonstrations, in the tradition of ancient Rome, with manacled Russian captives and their plundered treasures paraded down Pennsylvania Avenue.

From Salon ● Mar. 3, 2019

“I am leashed it looks like, manacled; cobwebbed, that’s closer,” she says.

From Slate ● Aug. 9, 2018

Even the stench from the manacled troll seemed mild in comparison.

From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer

Where is their evidence that manacling our language to past usage is at all helpful or necessary?

From The Guardian ● Jun. 12, 2010

President Johnson held Jefferson Davis in long imprisonment, with the aggravation not only of close confinement and even a temporary manacling, but of a public accusation of complicity in the murder of Lincoln.

From The Negro and the Nation A History of American Slavery and Enfranchisement by George Spring Merriam

The manacling of Mr. Davis delayed the work of reconstruction for years, and did much to restore the feeling of sectional hatred which fair fighting had overcome.

From Perley's Reminiscences, v. 1-2 of Sixty Years in the National Metropolis by Benjamin Perley Poore

Before this conception we might well shudder, for its irons are secretly manacling our own limbs.

From Monks, Popes, and their Political Intrigues by John Alberger

It was equivalent to putting out a man's eyes, and then asserting boldly that he cannot see; of manacling his ankles, and charging him with the inability to run.

From History of the Negro Race in America From 1619 to 1880. Vol 1 Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens by George Washington Williams

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---