shackled

Also found in: Thesaurus, Idioms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

shackle

anchor shackle

shack·le

(shăk′əl)

1. A device, usually one of a pair connected to a chain, that encircles the ankle or wrist of a prisoner or captive.

2. A hobble for an animal.

3. Any of several devices, such as a clevis, used to fasten or couple.

4. often shackles A restraint or check on action or progress: "throwing off the puritanical shackles" (Ben Yagoda).

tr.v. shack·led, shack·ling, shack·les

1. To put shackles on (someone); confine with shackles.

2. To fasten or connect with a shackle.

3. To restrict, confine, or hamper. See Synonyms at hobble.

[Middle English schackel, from Old English sceacel, fetter.]

shack′ler n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Switch to new thesaurus

Adj.

shackled - bound by chains fastened around the ankles

fettered

bound - confined by bonds; "bound and gagged hostages"

Translations

ammanettato

Mentioned in ?

References in classic literature ?

The ability also of the Irish parliament to maintain the rights of their constituents, so far as the disposition might exist, was extremely shackled by the control of the crown over the subjects of their deliberation.

View in context

A vessel in the Channel has her anchors always ready, her cables shackled on, and the land almost always in sight.

View in context

But there was never a chance, never a moment, when he might run free of a cage about him, of the walls of a room restricting him, of a chain shackled to the collar about his throat.

View in context

There is no wilderness where I can hide from these things, there is no haven where I can escape them; though I travel to the ends of the earth, I find the same accursed system--I find that all the fair and noble impulses of humanity, the dreams of poets and the agonies of martyrs, are shackled and bound in the service of organized and predatory Greed!

View in context

Then the first guardsman was upon me and the fight was on, but scarce did we engage ere, to my horror, I saw that the red slaves were shackled to the floor.

View in context

However, the restraint method significantly (p<0.01) affected the corticosterone level as the shackled birds had a higher corticosterone concentration than their coned counterparts.

Effects of method and duration of restraint on stress hormones and meat quality in broiler chickens with different body weights

Summary: New Delhi [India], Jan 3 (ANI): People with psychological disorders shackled like cattle, their feet tied with iron chains and padlocked for days, months and years- this is the sight at a dirty shed in Uttar Pradesh's Badaun where men and women, young and old, suffering from mental illnesses are kept and abused.

Thousands of mentally ill people chained in sheds in UP

Corruption has so shackled all those people who work in government that they have lost their grit.

No need for anti-insurgency task force

An elephant in Mondulkiri died from apparent malnutrition on Saturday after being shackled for over 20 days because it was in musth, a naturally occurring periodic hormone surge.

Elephant in Mondulkiri dies from apparent malnutrition after being shackled

give birth, her ankles were shackled and her wrists handcuffed.

Pregnancy in Confinement, Anti-Shackling Laws and the "Extraordinary Circumstances" Loophole

Since March 1, authorities have shackled prisoners in Building 7 whenever they leave their cells.

Rights Groups Urge Bahrain to End Harsh Treatment of 'Wrongfully Imprisoned Activists'

In 2006, as part of a National Juvenile Defender Center assessment team, Martinez said he was shocked to witness an 11-year-old girl only 3-foot-7-inches tall shackled with handcuffs and a belly chain connected to both handcuffs and leg irons, as she was led to juvenile court at Tallahassee's Leon County Courthouse.