tethered
Americanadjective
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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.
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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
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of tethered
Explanation
Tethered describes something that's tied up, like a horse that's tethered to a fence or a dog that's tethered to the person who is walking it. Whenever you confine a person or an animal to keep them in one place, they're tethered. A bank robber might leave his hostages tethered together in the vault, and you might keep your fence-jumping dog tethered to the porch when she's out in your yard. The root word is the Old Norse tjoðr, tether, which was used only as a noun to describe the rope that ties animals until the late 15th century, when the verb form developed.
Vocabulary lists containing tethered
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
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Life Is So Good
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Far from the Tree
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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.
Tethered to the people and places that shaped her into the person she’s become, Del Valle, 54, has been working on this intensely personal project for over 16 years.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 18, 2025
Tethered to a small speedboat and being towed towards us was the first of nine migrant boats we would encounter during our 24-hour patrol with the Tunisian coast guard.
From BBC • Aug. 29, 2023
Tethered to IVs and fatigued with restless anticipation, Trinity Landrum distractedly nodded to the legion of scrubs scurrying in and out of her hospital room.
From Seattle Times • Jun. 3, 2023
By the third act, the film reveals that Adelaide was one of the Tethered who escaped and forced Red to take her place.
From New York Times • Aug. 29, 2019
Tethered to the pier around us are many ships of all configurations.
From "Salt to the Sea" by Ruta Sepetys
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.
