tethered

[teth-erd]

adjective

1. fastened or confined with or as if with a rope, chain, or the like to limit the range of movement.

   On this field trip, students will have the opportunity to take a ride in a tethered hot-air balloon.

   Too many lawmakers are partisan, inept, or too lightly tethered to reality.

2. Digital Technology.,  (of an electronic device) used to enable a wireless internet connection on another nearby device, often a laptop.

   You can browse the web more securely using a tethered phone, because your information is being sent directly through the phone rather than over a public wireless hotspot.

verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of tether.

Other Word Forms

• untethered adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of tethered¹

tether ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

Example Sentences

“Masquerade” is more firmly tethered to the source material than “Sleep No More” was to Shakespeare’s play.

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For all the talk of a bubble forming in AI investments, investors can’t afford not to remain tethered to the market’s most-powerful force.

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She tells him on her deathbed that she’s able to see spirits “still tethered to the living world.”

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Even as his own dreams are beginning to materialize, Tonatiuh, 30, remains tethered to these places and people.

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“Putting aside the NIL agreements, the question of whether a player’s time has run remains in full force. The eligibility question is not tethered to the question of compensation or commercial transaction.”

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Related Words

• barred 
• blocked 
• closed 
• confined 
• controlled 
• defined 
• deprived 
• prescribed 
• reduced 
• restrained 
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