tethered

American

[teth-erd] / ˈtɛð ərd /

adjective

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.
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

the simple past tense and past participle of tether.

Other Word Forms

untethered adjective

Etymology

Origin of tethered

tether ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

It’s like my cousin is tethered to me by an invisible braid that we cannot unravel until Labor Day.

From Literature

Scanners tethered to a smartphone help them find the packages on long rows of shelves.

From The Wall Street Journal

Hailing from a different strain of the Shia faith, the Houthis are less ideologically tethered to Iran and have long enjoyed more independence from Tehran than other proxies in the Middle East.

From Barron's

It’s tethered to ChatGPT creator OpenAI, it’s spending billions on data centers it hopes to develop its cloud infrastructure business, and it’s getting hammered in the market by concerns over its debt, growth, and strategy.

From Barron's

We hurried home to see a brown horse tethered at the end of our path, and our door half open.

From Literature

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023