trammel

The most correct method of drawing an ellipse is by means of an instrument termed a trammel, which is shown in Figure 83.

Trammel, tram′el, n. a net used in fowling and fishing: shackles for making a horse amble: anything that confines.

There was no cult of seamanship, no dead wall of prejudice to trammel modern naval developments.

The coronation oath, they said, was never intended to trammel him in his legislative capacity.

That which is progress to-day, may it not one hundred years hence have become mere routine, and a downright trammel?