Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In zoology, having the feet stretched backward and apparently unfit for the purpose of walking, as in the seal, or concealed within the integuments of the abdomen.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Zoöl.) Seeming as if fettered, as the feet of certain animals which bend backward, and appear unfit for walking.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Simple past tense and past participle of fetter.
  • adjective Bound by chains or shackles
  • adjective by extension Restricted

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective bound by chains fastened around the ankles

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The spluttering defensiveness, the creepy vindictiveness, all signs of a brain fettered with incipient rot.

    Matthew Yglesias » Der Dolchstoss 2007

  • This pedantry of costume and the circumspect carriage which it exacted, were pleasantly contrasted with the flowing vivacity of the wearer, engendering by their concourse an amusing compound, which I might call a fettered and pinioned alacrity of demeanor, the rigid stateliness of exterior seeming rather ineffectually to encase, as a half-bursting chrysalis, the wings of a gay nature.

    Rob of the bowl : a legend of St. Inigoe's, 1872

  • Anyone who says that the industry is 'fettered' by too much regulation and government interference, needs a swift kick in the ass!

    Archive 2009-07-01 2009

  • Anyone who says that the industry is 'fettered' by too much regulation and government interference, needs a swift kick in the ass!

    Ahh ... The Glories Of The 'Unfettered' Free Market!! 2009

  • I mean, sure, Verizon provided the government spy agencies "fettered" access to my private, confidential, personal phone records that they were supposed to keep to themselves for the past many years that I've been a Verizon customers - and they didn't.

    05/12/2006 2006

  • Though 'fettered' slave be none, her floors and soil

    HUMANITY 1888

  • And they call US ridiculous ... was "fettered" by government regulation.

    From On High 2009

  • It was a little like betting on a fixed (or even "fettered") race.

    NEWS.com.au | Top Stories 2009

  • It would be interesting to see how well she'd compete against such "fettered" rivals as Germany, France and even Italy.

    Can Britain Really Prosper 'Unfettered' by the EU? 2011

  • He was a Caliban, a monstrous phantom, fettered to him for untold ages, the penalty of some forgotten crime.

    In a Far Country 2010

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