manacle
Americannoun
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a shackle for the hand; handcuff.
-
Usually manacles. restraints; checks.
verb (used with object)
-
to handcuff; fetter.
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to hamper; restrain.
He was manacled by his inhibitions.
noun
verb
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to put manacles on
-
to confine or constrain
Other Word Forms
- unmanacled adjective
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.
Vocabulary lists containing manacle
Figurative Language in King's "I Have a Dream" Speech (1963)
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Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" Speech (1963)
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Night
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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.
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
As the werewolf wrenched itself free of the manacle binding it, the dog seized it about the neck and pulled it backward, away from Ron and Pettigrew.
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
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.
