FETTERED

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does fettered mean? 

• FETTERED (adjective)
  The adjective FETTERED has 1 sense:

1. bound by chains fastened around the ankles

  Familiarity information: FETTERED used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FETTERED (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Bound by chains fastened around the ankles

Synonyms:

fettered; shackled

Similar:

bound (confined by bonds)

 Context examples 

The shortness of his visit, the steadiness of his purpose in leaving them, originated in the same fettered inclination, the same inevitable necessity of temporizing with his mother.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

But in his countenance I saw a change: that looked desperate and brooding—that reminded me of some wronged and fettered wild beast or bird, dangerous to approach in his sullen woe.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I sank down in a chair, and tried to utter some reply; but my tongue was fettered, and my sight was weak.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Then again the kindly influence ceased to act—I found myself fettered again to grief and indulging in all the misery of reflection.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

And at any rate, she lost nothing by continuing the engagement, for she has proved that it fettered neither her inclination nor her actions.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Oh, I wish I could make you see how much my mind is at this moment like a rayless dungeon, with one shrinking fear fettered in its depths—the fear of being persuaded by you to attempt what I cannot accomplish!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Or at least, if she did not bring herself quite to rejoice in Edward's being fettered to Lucy, she determined, that had Lucy been more amiable, she OUGHT to have rejoiced.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I thought, sir, that you were on the road a long way before me; and I strained every nerve to overtake you, and made effort on effort to utter your name and entreat you to stop—but my movements were fettered, and my voice still died away inarticulate; while you, I felt, withdrew farther and farther every moment.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

And even now, I cannot comprehend on what motive she acted, or what fancied advantage it could be to her, to be fettered to a man for whom she had not the smallest regard, and who had only two thousand pounds in the world.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

My master's colourless, olive face, square, massive brow, broad and jetty eyebrows, deep eyes, strong features, firm, grim mouth,—all energy, decision, will,—were not beautiful, according to rule; but they were more than beautiful to me; they were full of an interest, an influence that quite mastered me,—that took my feelings from my own power and fettered them in his.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)