Library / English Dictionary

FETTER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A shackle for the ankles or feet

Synonyms:

fetter; hobble

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("fetter" is a kind of...):

bond; hamper; shackle; trammel (a restraint that confines or restricts freedom (especially something used to tie down or restrain a prisoner))

Derivation:

fetter (restrain with fetters)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Restrain with fetters

Synonyms:

fetter; shackle

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "fetter" is one way to...):

confine; constrain; hold; restrain (to close within bounds, or otherwise limit or deprive of free movement)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "fetter"):

cuff; handcuff; manacle (confine or restrain with or as if with manacles or handcuffs)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

They want to fetter the prisoners

Derivation:

fetter (a shackle for the ankles or feet)

Credits

 Context examples: 

These reminded me, in reference to Miss Murdstone's nature, of the fetters over a jail door; suggesting on the outside, to all beholders, what was to be expected within.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Or at least, if she did not bring herself quite to rejoice in Edward's being fettered to Lucy, she determined, that had Lucy been more amiable, she OUGHT to have rejoiced.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

As he moved, a chain clanked; to his wrists were attached fetters.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“We'll say I don't understand the boy, Clara,” returned Miss Murdstone, arranging the little fetters on her wrists.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

And even now, I cannot comprehend on what motive she acted, or what fancied advantage it could be to her, to be fettered to a man for whom she had not the smallest regard, and who had only two thousand pounds in the world.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

From that moment my state of mind changed; the fetters dissolved and dropped from every faculty, leaving nothing of bondage but its galling soreness—which time only can heal.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Then, just touching the back of my hand with the tips of her cold, stiff fingers, she walked away, arranging the little fetters on her wrists and round her neck; which seemed to be the same set, in exactly the same state, as when I had seen her last.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

When given, he viewed me to learn the result; it was not striking: I am sure I did not blush; perhaps I might have turned a little pale, for I felt as if this kiss were a seal affixed to my fetters.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Having uttered which, with great distinctness, she begged the favour of being shown to her room, which became to me from that time forth a place of awe and dread, wherein the two black boxes were never seen open or known to be left unlocked, and where (for I peeped in once or twice when she was out) numerous little steel fetters and rivets, with which Miss Murdstone embellished herself when she was dressed, generally hung upon the looking-glass in formidable array.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

To pass its threshold was to return to stagnation; to cross the silent hall, to ascend the darksome staircase, to seek my own lonely little room, and then to meet tranquil Mrs. Fairfax, and spend the long winter evening with her, and her only, was to quell wholly the faint excitement wakened by my walk,—to slip again over my faculties the viewless fetters of an uniform and too still existence; of an existence whose very privileges of security and ease I was becoming incapable of appreciating.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)