fetter

The clarity and lack of fetter is characteristic of Ullmann’s way of seeing the world in prose and, in this case, of seeing the self as a third person.

From New York Times ● Jan. 10, 2019

At its core, it serves to moderate the thrill for new ideas and fetter decision-making with long debates.

From Slate ● May 16, 2017

At another point, the actor becomes one of two mortarboard-wearing orators who pull at the straps that fetter two shocked listeners.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 19, 2016

And the commission stated it was not seeking to fetter the charity's discretion to fund Cage "for all time regardless of changing circumstances".

From BBC ● Oct. 21, 2015

In the black iron fetter about his wrist, the ruby seemed to pulse.

From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin

“We seek a new revolution,” he said, “not less important, perhaps, in its consequences than that of 1776—a revolution in letters; a shaking off of the fetters of the mind.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025

"I just couldn't break away from the fetters."

From Reuters ● Apr. 13, 2023

Its stage is where King Kong broke his fetters in the 1933 movie.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 8, 2023

Through religion, we are often invited to relive a past trauma as if it is unfolding perpetually in the present; and through the repetition of that trauma, transcend the fetters of its pain.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 8, 2021

The earthquakes will be so great that all bonds and shackles and fetters will be destroyed.

From "Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman

Both were fettered by entrenched social expectations, leaving little room for anyone who wanted to chart a different course.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 8, 2026

Despite efforts from the Valkyries and Odin’s ravens, this Viking action art piece is fettered to the ground by the demands of the studio gods.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 18, 2022

“With a bigger company, I can do more things and not be fettered by the small business mentality,” he said.

From New York Times ● Apr. 26, 2021

It’s a place I can go to stay motivated, stay on track, keep everything fettered and balanced in my life.

From Slate ● Aug. 19, 2020

On the ground, the jockey was fettered and muted, moving in slow motion, the world a sensory vacuum after the tenfold high of racing speed.

From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand

In fact, this is not aid but a handout of leftovers from the master's table made conditional upon fettering obligations .

From Time Magazine Archive

With iron censorship fettering the Press last week, shocking reports circulated by word of mouth throughout the Peninsula and the Isles of Greece.

From Time Magazine Archive

Like the present conflict, that was one between an old and firmly rooted principle that had outlived most of its usefulness and was fettering liberty, and a new principle that meant emancipation.

From The Unpopular Review, Number 19 July-December 1918 by Various

He is hindered in his conduct; he is not always conscious of it, but nevertheless there is a real binding or fettering of his actions.

From Usury A Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View by Calvin Elliott

In sacred subjects the law was inflexible, and religion, which has frequently done so much for the development and direction of taste in sculpture, had the effect of fettering the genius of Egyptian artists.

From Museum of Antiquity A Description of Ancient Life by T. L. (Thomas Louis) Haines