manacle

[ man-uh-kuhl ]

noun

1. a shackle for the hand; handcuff.
2. Usually manacles. restraints; checks.

verb (used with object)

, man·a·cled, man·a·cling.

1. to handcuff; fetter.
2. to hamper; restrain:

   He was manacled by his inhibitions.

manacle

/ ˈmænəkəl /

noun

1. usually plural a shackle, handcuff, or fetter, used to secure the hands of a prisoner, convict, etc

verb

1. to put manacles on
2. to confine or constrain

Other Words From

• un·mana·cled adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of manacle¹

1275–1325; Middle English, variant of manicle < Middle French: handcuff < Latin manicula small hand, handle of a plow. See manus, -i-, -cle ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of manacle¹

C14: via Old French from Latin manicula, diminutive of manus hand

Example Sentences

Every day, the prop master came in with a real manacle and shackled the actor with a real lock.

From New York Times

He looked across at me, and his eye appraised my watch-chain, and then he incidentally spat and said something to the other convict, and they laughed and slued themselves round with a clink of their coupling manacle, and looked at something else.

From Literature

They did not undertake to say when it had left the prison-ships to which it undoubtedly had once belonged; but they claimed to know for certain that that particular manacle had not been worn by either of the two convicts who had escaped last night.

From Literature

The enablers of our misbegotten occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq have been shrieking like banshees at Biden, trying to manacle him to their own past mistakes as he attempts to lift off.

From New York Times

The mural moves on to Harriet Tubman and Lincoln, who is holding a chain with a broken manacle.

From New York Times