Usually trammels . a hindrance or impediment to free action; restraint: the trammels of custom.
an instrument for drawing ellipses.
Also called tram. a device used to align or adjust parts of a machine.
trammel net.
a fowling net.
a contrivance hung in a fireplace to support pots or kettles over the fire.
a fetter or shackle, especially one used in training a horse to amble.
verb (used with object),tram·meled,tram·mel·ing or (especially British) tram·melled,tram·mel·ling.
to involve or hold in trammels; restrain.
to catch or entangle in or as in a net.
Origin of trammel
1325–75; Middle English tramayle<Middle French tramail, variant of tremail three-mesh net <Late Latin trēmaculum, equivalent to Latin trē(s) three + macula mesh
The only tools desirable to provide, in addition to those previously used, are a trammel and spokeshave or a circle plane.
The Library of Work and Play: Home Decoration|Charles Franklin Warner
This veto power was a trammel, and an unnecessary restraint on the freedom of legislation.
History of the Constitutions of Iowa|Benjamin F. Shambaugh
He rose and walked to the edge of the veranda, and stretched himself as if to shake off some trammel of thought.
A Tar-Heel Baron|Mabell Shippie Clarke Pelton
No Constitution, it is true, can "trammel up" facts and put power anywhere but where nature puts it.
Appearances|Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson
Reason is confined within none of the partitions which trammel it in life.
The Book-lover|James Baldwin
British Dictionary definitions for trammel
trammel
/ (ˈtræməl) /
noun
(often plural)a hindrance to free action or movement
Also called: trammel neta fishing net in three sections, the two outer nets having a large mesh and the middle one a fine mesh
rarea fowling net
USa fetter or shackle, esp one used in teaching a horse to amble
a device for drawing ellipses consisting of a flat sheet of metal, plastic, or wood having a cruciform slot in which run two pegs attached to a beam. The free end of the beam describes an ellipse
(sometimes plural) another name for beam compass
Also called: trama gauge for setting up machines correctly
a device set in a fireplace to support cooking pots