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 men who’d been chained had to stay with us, because they had to get rid of the fetters on their ankles before they could go anywhere.

From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein

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

New emblem’s meh, the ex-term smelt; The bevy, recent-Red-Type-Pelt — They’re fettered, hexed; the shell needs shed.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 10, 2022

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

I looked at him and believed he spoke the truth, he seemed less fettered than he had been before, more modern, more human, he was not hemmed in by shadows.

From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier

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

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

Yet the very patents sought and granted for exclusive trades and manufactures, though tending to diminish commerce by fettering it, are proofs of demand and consumption, and of the industrial energy of the age.

From London in Modern Times or, Sketches of the English Metropolis during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. by Unknown

The institutions of royalty and of civic patriotism are both very capable of being fossilised into barren formulae, and thus of fettering instead of inspiring the soul.

From Myths & Legends of the Celtic Race by T. W. (Thomas William) Rolleston

"To rule by fettering the mind through fear of punishment in another world is just as base as to use force," said Hypatia in one of her lectures.

From Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 10 Little Journeys To The Homes Of Great Teachers by Elbert Hubbard