FETTER • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Fetter

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/fˈɛtər/ Listen

noun

Fetter n. (Chiefly used in the plural, fetters.)

A chain or shackle for the feet; a chain by which an animal is confined by the foot, either made fast or disabled from free and rapid motion; a bond; a shackle. "(They) bound him with fetters of brass."

Anything that confines or restrains; a restraint. "Passion's too fierce to be in fetters bound."

verb

Fetter v. t.

To put fetters upon; to shackle or confine the feet of with a chain; to bind. "My heels are fettered, but my fist is free."

To restrain from motion; to impose restraints on; to confine; to enchain; as, fettered by obligations. "My conscience! thou art fettered More than my shanks and wrists."

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Etymology of 'Fetter'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Fetter" Quotes from Famous Books

... Hyde,[2] in writing story, Shows all the malice of a Tory; While Burnet,[3] in his deathless page, Discovers freedom without rage. To Woolston[4] recommend our youth, For learning, probity, and truth; That noble genius, who unbinds The chains which fetter freeborn minds; Redeems us from the slavish fears Which lasted near two thousand years; He can alone the priesthood humble, Make gilded spires ...

— The Poems of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Volume I (of 2) • Jonathan Swift

... he said, waving his hand toward the unhappy gladiator, "put out his eyes, fetter him foot and hand, and cast him to the ...

— The Roman Traitor (Vol. 2 of 2) • Henry William Herbert

... man then hinder me from going with smiles and cheerfulness and contentment? Tell me the secret which you possess. I will not, for this is in my power. But I will put you in chains. Man, what are you talking about? Me, in chains? You may fetter my leg, but my will not even Zeus himself can overpower. I will throw you into prison. My poor body, you mean. I will cut your head off. When then have I told you that my head alone cannot be cut off? These ...

— A Selection from the Discourses of Epictetus With the Encheiridion • Epictetus

... very much more quickly. Weingartner, in writing upon this point (with especial reference to the public performance) says:[36] "He should know it [the score] so thoroughly that during the performance the score is merely a support for his memory, not a fetter on his thought." The same writer in another place quotes von Buelow as dividing conductors into "those who have their heads in the score, and those who have the ...

— Essentials in Conducting • Karl Wilson Gehrkens

... of the fathers were better, And of how we were fashioned from out of the earth; Of how the once lowly spurned strong at the fetter; Of the days of the deeds and beginning ...

— The Roots of the Mountains • William Morris

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