Both Uses of
shackle
in
Change of Heart, by Picoult
- His scrubs were shaken out, and then he was allowed to dress again before he was shackled to the wall across from our cells.†
*shackled = restrained
- —BONO, AT THE NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST, FEBRUARY 2, 2006 Maggie Shay stood, his arms akimbo, looking just as surprised to be unshackled as we were to see him that way.†
unshackled = removed restraintsstandard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unshackled means not and reverses the meaning of shackled. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
Definition:
to restrain freedom; or a device used to restrain freedom such as metal rings used to chain wrists or ankles to each other