1A chain or manacle used to restrain a prisoner, typically placed around the ankles.

1. 1.1 A restraint or check on someone's freedom to act.
   the fetters of convention

   Example sentencesExamples

   • But it cannot, nor does it attempt to, impose fetters on the obligations of police authorities to pass information between each other.
   • There are now new fetters on some of our freedoms, most we don't notice till we run into them.
   • To attempt to place upon the idea the fetters of an exact verbal formula could never have been sound.
   • It is contrary to the public interest because to admit such actions would place an undesirable fetter on freedom of speech.
   • In such circumstances it would, I think, place a serious fetter on negotiations between other parties if they knew that everything that passed between them would ultimately have to be revealed to the one obdurate litigant.
   • As for public policy, I accept that there is an important public interest in discouraging restraints on trade, and maintaining free and open competition unencumbered by the fetters of restrictive covenants.
   • Yes, and then the distinction between substantive fetters on powers and manner and form provisions that deal with the way in which powers are to be exercised is one that will come to the fore.
   • It is a de facto fetter on the Minister's freedom to formulate policy in Government and the electorate's right to vote for parties espousing particular policies.
   • The libertarian position, that everything the government does to try to curb antisocial behaviour is an illegitimate fetter on personal liberty, seems to me to be quite wrong.
   • In my judgment to impose such an obligation on a secured creditor would impose a serious fetter on the freedom of the secured creditor to exercise his power of sale over the charged property at the time and in the manner he chooses.
   • His final walk was through riot torn Noakhali, to heal the wounds inflicted by fanatics on his beloved motherland, as she prepared to cast off the fetters of slavery and discovered that her cruel captors had dismembered her.
   • For Faqir, it is the belief that all poetic expression can convey the ineffable, disclosing the nature of their inner being unalloyed by the fetters of religious and social convention.
   • Virtually no legal fetters exist to curb the resort to force; international legal standards afford only minimal protection.
   • Provided it is made without fetter of confidence and so on.
   • They should be freed from the political fetters and given full freedom to act impartially.
   • It is said that the fetter on judicial review unlawfully discriminates against non-nationals on the ground of their nationality.
   • It could make a person, an artist even, that hypothetical cipher of freedom from drab social fetters, wonder if she has been doing what she wanted all along.
   • There might be times when the tactics infringe individual freedoms such as the freedom to travel without fetter or freedoms of speech.
   • There are strict fetters on the ability of the court to imply further terms.
   • The Supreme Court has an obligation ‘to avoid putting fetters upon the future by needless pronouncements today.’

   Synonyms

   restraint, constraint, curb, check, impediment, obstacle, barrier, handicap, bar, block, hindrance, encumbrance, disadvantage, drawback, snag, stumbling block

1Restrain with chains or manacles, typically around the ankles.

1. 1.1 Confine or restrict (someone)
   he was not fettered by tradition

   Example sentencesExamples

   • It is important to avoid unduly fettering the power to amend the provisions of the scheme, thereby preventing the parties from making those changes which may be required by the exigencies of commercial life.
   • Licensing, legal threats and intimidation directed at journalists all fetter press freedom.
   • If the freed slave was not fettered by this social contract (self-disciplined productive laborer and consumer), she was criminal.
   • The benign prerogative of mercy reposed cannot be fettered by any legislative restrictions.
   • How far can the government fetter its own future freedom of executive action by entering into a contract?
   • The principle thus given is of great importance and ought not, in my opinion, to be unduly fettered or restricted.
   • Whereas wrong desires restrict and fetter, right desires enhance and liberate.
   • Yes, it means having a nationality, and more often than not, a religion, and so on; all of these things which really fetter us I think.
   • Future work will not be fettered by previous constraints.
   • A contract which unlawfully fetters the discretion of a purchaser is ultra vires and invalid.
   • For the corruption of weak choices results in a chain of habit being formed, which fetters the character and becomes second nature, flawed or ‘vitiated’ nature.
   • Philosophers, however, were not fettered by such constraints.
   • Mr Francis argued that it does because it fetters one of the important rights inherent in ownership, that of freedom of alienation.
   • Women throughout the developed world, she adds, are in revolt ‘against a domestic role they believe fetters their personal freedom’.
   • We certainly listened very closely to the advice provided by officials, weighed up the issues, and basically came down to the basis that we must not unduly fetter or hamstring the commission itself.
   • Let loose for his first full 90 minutes this week, in a reserve match against Montrose, he says he was refusing to be fettered by any constraints.
   • Just a little woozy… sane enough, but of course, to spit out the entire chemistry of the substance that fettered us with its silken strands.
   • I am appalled he would sanction the introduction of legislation such as this which, as Deputy Dukes said, will fetter the members of the House now and in the future.

   Synonyms

   restrict, restrain, constrain, confine, limit

   hinder, hamper, impede, obstruct, handicap, hamstring, encumber, inhibit, check, curb, tie down

   tie someone's hands, cramp someone's style

   literary trammel