fetter
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English feter, from Old English feter, Proto-West Germanic *fetur, from Proto-Germanic *feturaz (“fetter”), from Proto-Indo-European *ped- (“foot, step”). Cognate with Dutch veter (“lace”). Related to foot.
Pronunciation edit
- (General Australian) IPA(key): /ˈfet.ə/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈfɛt.ə/
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈfɛt.ɚ/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɛtə(ɹ)
Noun edit
fetter (plural fetters)
- A chain or similar object used to bind a person or animal – often by its legs (usually in plural).
- (figurative) Anything that restricts or restrains.
- 1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe[1], Prologue:
- Passion's too fierce to be in fetters bound.
- 1818, Mary Shelley, chapter 6, in Frankenstein[2], archived from the original on 8 May 2013:
- He looks upon study as an odious fetter; his time is spent in the open air, climbing the hills or rowing on the lake.
- 1910, Erwin Rosen, “Prolog”, in In the Foreign Legion[3], HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2012:
- That was the turning-point of my life. I broke my fetters, and I fought a hard fight for a new career …
Synonyms edit
(chains on legs):
Hyponyms edit
(chain binding generally):
Translations edit
object used to bind a person or animal by its legs
|
anything that restricts or restrains in any way
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
Verb edit
fetter (third-person singular simple present fetters, present participle fettering, simple past and past participle fettered)
- (transitive) To shackle or bind up with fetters.
- 1788 June, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, “Mr. Sheridan’s Speech, on Summing Up the Evidence on the Second, or Begum Charge against Warren Hastings, Esq., Delivered before the High Court of Parliament, June 1788”, in Select Speeches, Forensick and Parliamentary, with Prefatory Remarks by N[athaniel] Chapman, M.D., volume I, [Philadelphia, Pa.]: Published by Hopkins and Earle, no. 170, Market Street, published 1808, →OCLC, page 474:
- The Begums' ministers, on the contrary, to extort from them the disclosure of the place which concealed the treasures, were, […] after being fettered and imprisoned, led out on to a scaffold, and this array of terrours proving unavailing, the meek tempered Middleton, as a dernier resort, menaced them with a confinement in the fortress of Chunargar. Thus, my lords, was a British garrison made the climax of cruelties!
- (transitive) To restrain or impede; to hamper.
Hyponyms edit
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
to shackle or bind up with fetters
|
to restrain or impede
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
German edit
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
fetter
Norwegian Bokmål edit
Etymology edit
From Middle Low German vedder.
Noun edit
fetter m (definite singular fetteren, indefinite plural fettere, definite plural fetterne)
- a cousin (male)
Coordinate terms edit
References edit
- “fetter” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
Norwegian Nynorsk edit
Etymology edit
From Middle Low German vedder.
Noun edit
fetter m (definite singular fetteren, indefinite plural fetrar, definite plural fetrane)
Coordinate terms edit
- kusine f (“female cousin”)
References edit
- “fetter” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
Swedish edit
Noun edit
fetter
- indefinite plural of fett
Vilamovian edit
Pronunciation edit
Audio (file) - Hyphenation: fet‧ter
Noun edit
fetter m (plural fettyn)
- paternal uncle (brother of someone’s father)