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Definition
to restrain or hinderor more archaically:
a shackle for the ankles
- She is fettered by old ideas whose time has passed.
fettered = hindered (held back)
- the law would fetter the free press
- An oppressed people are authorized whenever they can to rise and break their fetters.Henry Clay
- Too often, our ability to trade with one another is fettered by quotas, tariffs and the influence of special interests.
- The clanking of fetters and the rattling of chains in the prison,Frederick Douglass -- The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
- A moment more and I had fettered him to the granite.Edgar Allan Poe -- The Cask of Amontillado
- Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voyage;
For we will fetters put upon this fear,
Which now goes too free-footed.William Shakespeare -- Hamlet, Prince of Denmark - And thus your freedom when ... becomes itself the fetter of a greater freedom.Kahlil Gibran -- The Prophet
- There is a devilish mercy in the judge,
If you'll implore it, that will free your life,
But fetter you till death.William Shakespeare -- Measure for Measure - Well, I must be patient; there is no fettering of authority.William Shakespeare -- All's Well That Ends Well
- It was Artemis, but she was wrapped in chains, fettered to the rocks.Rick Riordan -- The Titan's Curse
- "You are fettered," said Scrooge, trembling.Charles Dickens -- A Christmas Carol
- so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal,Martin Luther King, Jr. -- Letter from a Birmingham Jail
- These strong Egyptian fetters I must break,William Shakespeare -- Antony and Cleopatra
- But there is no such man; for, brother, men
Can counsel and speak comfort to that grief
...
Would...
Fetter strong madness in a silken thread,
Charm ache with air and agony with words.William Shakespeare -- Much Ado About Nothing - Unfettered at last, it glided slowly through his consciousness...Henry H. Neff -- The Hound of Rowan
- He felt it as a fetter, an encumbrance, something which made them both, but him in particular, ridiculous.Woolf, Virginia -- Night and Day
- No way but to fetter 'em; got legs,—they'll use 'em,—no mistake.Stowe, Harriet Beecher -- Uncle Tom's Cabin
- Also, his love of freedom chafed against the restriction in much the same way his neck chafed against the starched fetter of a collar.London, Jack -- Martin Eden
- He did not even feel the fetters.Fyodor Dostoyevsky -- Crime and Punishment
fetters = a shackle for the ankles
fettered = chained
fetters = shackles (chains to bind the ankles)
fetter = restraining shackles
fetter = to shackle or otherwise restrain or hinder
fettering = to restraining or hindering
fettered = shackled (restrained with chains)
fettered = to restrain or hinder; or a shackle for the ankles or feet
unfettered = unrestrained or unhindered
(editor's note: The prefix "un-" in unfettered means not and reverses the meaning of fettered. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.)
fetters = shackles that bind the ankles or feet
fetter = restrain (shackle)
unfettered = unrestrained or unhindered
(editor's note: The prefix "un-" in unfettered means not and reverses the meaning of fettered. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.)