tethered

[ teth-erd ]

adjective

1. fastened or confined with or as if with a rope, chain, or the like to limit the range of movement:

   On this field trip, students will have the opportunity to take a ride in a tethered hot-air balloon.

   Too many lawmakers are partisan, inept, or too lightly tethered to reality.

2. Digital Technology. (of an electronic device) used to enable a wireless internet connection on another nearby device, often a laptop:

   You can browse the web more securely using a tethered phone, because your information is being sent directly through the phone rather than over a public wireless hotspot.

verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of tether.

Other Words From

• un·teth·ered adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of tethered¹

tether ( def ) + -ed ²( def )

Example Sentences

Initially, these were carried out with the aircraft tethered to the ground.

From BBC

“Forgetting helps us to focus on the here and now and on the decisions and the actions we need to take, rather than be tethered to the past.”

From Slate

We may have escaped physically, but our souls and hearts remained tethered to our loved ones in Gaza.

From BBC

“There’s a primal yearning to be part of nature and tethered to eternal things. It’s also just hot. Like, that’s a sexy dude with his f— farm life,” he says.

From Los Angeles Times

Off in the distance, a fence is glimpsed, suggesting a cultivated landscape rather than a wild one, while a lone telephone pole identifies the rural location as tethered to community via modern communication.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• barred
• blocked
• closed
• confined
• controlled
• defined
• deprived
• prescribed
• reduced
• restrained
• secured
• shortened