shackle

A prison inmate in shackles (sense 1).

A shackle used to attach things together (sense 1.1.1).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈʃækl̩/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈʃæk(ə)l/
• Rhymes: -ækəl
• Hyphenation: shack‧le

From Middle English shakel, schakkyl, schakle (“a fetter, shackle; coupling used to connect a plough or wagon to a draft chain”),^[1] from Old English sċacul, sċeacel, sċeacul (“fetter, shackle”), from Proto-West Germanic *skakul, from Proto-Germanic *skakulaz (“shackle”), possibly from *skakaną (“to shake; to swing; to escape”), from Proto-Indo-European *skeg-, *skek- (“to shake; to stir”). However, this is doubted by the Oxford English Dictionary because *skeg-, *skek- lack the meaning of attaching or fastening.^[2]

Sense 3 (“length of cable or chain equal to 12½ or 15 fathoms”) derives from the original distance between two shackles (sense 1.1.2) connecting lengths of cable or chain together.^[2]

shackle (plural shackles)

2. (usually in the plural) A restraint fitted over a human or animal appendage, such as an ankle, finger, or wrist, normally used in a pair joined by a chain.

   Synonym: fetter

   Hyponyms: handcuff, hobble, hopple, legcuff, manacle, wristlet

   The prisoner lay in shackles in his gloomy cell.

   • 1785, William Cowper, “Book II. The Time-piece.”, in The Task, a Poem, , London: J Johnson;  , →OCLC, page 47:

     Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs / Receive our air, that moment they are free, / They touch our country and their ſhackles fall. / That's noble, and beſpeaks a nation proud / And jealous of the bleſſing.

   • 1851 June – 1852 April, Harriet Beecher Stowe, “The Property is Carried Off”, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, volume I, Boston, Mass.: John P Jewett & Company; Cleveland, Oh.: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, published 20 March 1852, →OCLC, page 147:

     Tom got in, and Haley, drawing out from under the wagon seat a heavy pair of shackles, made them fast around each ankle. A smothered groan of indignation ran through the whole circle, […]

   • 1956 April 14, “Look … No Shackles, No Bruised Hams”, in Edward R. Swem, editor, The National Provisioner, volume 134, number 15, Chicago, Ill.: National Provisioner, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 18, column 1:

     As installed at Hormel's Fremont, Nebr plant, pleasanter and safer working conditions for hog dispatching personnel, […] are some other plus factors for this new hog sticking-bleeding method. […] Conveyors replace the shackle and shackle hoist and a precisely administered incision replaces catch-as-catch-can sticking.

   1. (by extension)
      2. A U-shaped piece of metal secured with a bolt or pin across the ends, or a hinged metal loop secured with a quick-release locking pin mechanism, used for attaching things together while allowing for some degree of movement; a clevis.
      4. A hook, ring, or other device for connecting, holding, lifting, etc.; specifically (nautical), a small incomplete ring secured with a bolt across the ends, used to connect lengths of cable or chain together, or to keep a porthole closed.
         • 2019, Vic Widman, “4WD Recovery Equipment”, in 4WD Driving Skills: A Manual for On- and Off-road Travel, 2nd edition, Clayton South, Melbourne, Vic.: CSIRO Publishing, →ISBN, page 164:

           Shackles come in various sizes and are used to join recovery items to the vehicle or to each other. They come in two shapes and are known as either bow shackles or D-shackles. The bow shackle is the preferred shape because it permits easier attachment of bulky items and is the most common style of shackle now in use.

      5. (agriculture) Synonym of hobble or hopple (“a short strap tied between the legs of a horse, allowing it to wander a short distance but not to run off”)
         • 1580, Thomas Tusser, “A Digression to Husbandlie Furniture”, in Fiue Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie: , London: Henrie Denham  , →OCLC, stanza 21, folios 16, verso – 17, recto:

           Soles, fetters, ⁊ ſhackles, with horſelock and pad, / a cow-houſe for winter, ſo meete to be had: / A ſtie for a bore, and a hogſcote for hog, / a rooſt for thy hennes, and a couch for thy dog.

         • 1610, Gervase Markham, “Of the Shackle Gall, or Gall in the Pastorne, either by Shackle or Locke”, in Markhams Maister-peece. Contayning All Knowledge Belonging to the Smith, Farrier, or Horse-leech, Touching the Curing of All Diseases in Horses: , 5th edition, London: Nicholas and Iohn Okes, , published 1636, →OCLC, 2nd book (Containing All Cures Chirurgicall, ), page 413:

           IF a horſe be galled in the paſtorne, on the heele, or upon the cronet, either vvith ſhackle or locke, as it many times happens in the Champion Countries, vvhere the Farriers uſe much to teach their Horſes: then for ſuch a ſore you ſhall take honey and verdigreaſe, and boyle them together till the one halfe be conſumed, and that it looke red: then after it is a little cooled, you ſhall anoynt the ſore place therevvith tvvice a day, and then ſtrevv upon it a little chopt floxe to keepe on the ſalve.

         • 1814, Robert Southey, “Canto XXV”, in Roderick, the Last of the Goths, London: or Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, , by James Ballantyne and Co. , →OCLC, page 318:

           I should have thought some sleek and sober mule / Long train'd in shackles to procession pace, / More suited to my Lord of Seville's use / Than this good war-horse, . .

      6. (rail transport) A link for connecting railroad cars; a draglink, drawbar, or drawlink.

         Synonym: (US) dragbar

      7. (Scotland, archaic) Short for shackle-bone (“wristbone, carpal; wrist”).
      8. (obsolete, rare) A fetter-like band worn on an appendage as an ornament; an anklet, an armlet, a bracelet, a wristlet.
         • 1634, T H, “”, in A Relation of Some Yeares Trauaile, Begunne Anno 1626. into Afrique and the Greater Asia, , London: William Stansby, and Jacob Bloome, →OCLC, pages 9–10:

           They firſt vvaſh the dead body, paint him, clothe him, and ſo conueigh him to his Dormitorie, vvhich is ſpacious and neat, vvherein they bury his Armolets, Bracelets, Shackles and ſuch Treaſure, concluding their Ceremonies vvith Mimmicke geſtures and eiaculations: vvhich, vvith the Sacrifice of a Goat, vpon his Graue, puts a period to their Burials.

         • 1697, William Dampier, chapter XVIII, in A New Voyage Round the World. , London: James Knapton, , →OCLC, page 514:

           oſt of the Men and VVomen […] had all Ear-rings made of Gold, and Gold Shackles about their Legs and Arms: […]

3. (figurative, usually in the plural) A restraint on one's action, activity, or progress.
   • 1664; first published 1694, Robert South, “A Sermon Preached before the University, at Christ-Church, Oxon. 1664.”, in Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions. , volume II, London: J H for Thomas Bennet , →OCLC, page 69:

     Servant commonly is leſs free in Mind than in Condition; his very VVill ſeems to be in bonds and ſhackles, and Deſire it ſelf under a kind of Durance and Captivity.

   • 1728 (date written), Edward Young, The Brothers. A Tragedy. , London: R Dodsley , published 1753, →OCLC, Act II, page 27:

     Virtue's a Shackle, under fair Diſguiſe, / To fetter Fools, vvhile vve bear off the Prize.

   • 1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXXV, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC, pages 269–270:

     He had to eat with knife and fork; he had to use napkin, cup and plate; he had to learn his book, he had to go to church; he had to talk so properly that speech was become insipid in his mouth; whithersoever he turned, the bars and shackles of civilization shut him in and bound him hand and foot.

   • 1963 April–December (date recorded), Richard M Sherman, Robert B Sherman (lyrics and music), “Sister Suffragette”, in Mary Poppins: Original Cast Soundtrack, performed by Glynis Johns, Burbank, Calif.: Buena Vista Distribution Company, published September 1964, →OCLC:

     Cast off the shackles of yesterday! / Shoulder to shoulder into the fray!

5. (nautical) A length of cable or chain equal to 12½ fathoms (75 feet or about 22.9 metres), or later to 15 fathoms (90 feet or about 27.4 metres).
   • 2007, David J. House, “Anchor Operations and Deployment”, in Ship Handling: Theory and Practice, Oxford, Oxfordshire; Burlington, Mass.: Butterworth-Heinemann, →ISBN, page 92:

     Once the cables are at five shackles to each anchor, stop engines and stop windlass operations. The vessel will then be seen to lie to five shackles on the Port (Riding Cable) and five shackles on the starboard (Sleeping Cable).

From Middle English schakelen, schakkylen (“(also figurative) to put (someone) in shackles; to protect (legs) with greaves”),^[3] from shakel, schakkyl, schakle (noun) (see etymology 1) + -en (suffix forming the infinitives of verbs).^[4][5]

shackle (third-person singular simple present shackles, present participle shackling, simple past and past participle shackled)

1. (transitive)
   1. To place (a person or animal) in shackles (noun sense 1); to immobilize or restrain using shackles.

      Synonyms: (obsolete) beshackle, cuff, enshackle, fetter, handcuff, manacle

      Antonyms: uncuff, unfetter, unhandcuff, unmanacle, unshackle

      • 1633, Hier Drexlius [i.e., Jeremias Drexel], “The Fifth Allurement to Incontinency, Wandring Eyes”, in R. S. , transl., Nicetas or The Triumph ouer Incontinencie , : , →OCLC, book I, § II, page 56:

        A man giuen ouer to ſenſual appetite carrieth fetters in his eyes, vvhervvith he shackleth, glevv, vvhervvith he layeth faſt hold, hookes, vvhervvith he catcheth, flames vvhervvith he burneth, ſhafts, vvhervvith he transfixeth both his ovvne and the ſoules of other men: ſhackled vvith theſe fetters, caught vvith these hookes, burnt vvith theſe flames: transfixed vvith theſe shafts vvas the Aſſyrian Holofernes.

      • 1815, Thomas Richards, “Huelydd, sub.”, in Antiquæ Linguæ Britannicæ Thesaurus. A Welsh and English Dictionary: , 2nd edition, Trefriw, Clwyd, Wales: I. Davies , →OCLC, page 269, column 1:

        Huelydd, sub[stantive] a fetterer, he that shackleth or fettereth

      • 1879, Henry Brugsch-Bey [i.e., Heinrich Karl Brugsch], “The Nineteenth Dynasty. The People of the Khita.”, in Henry Danby Seymour, Philip Smith, transl., edited by Philip Smith, A History of Egypt under the Pharaohs: Derived Entirely from the Monuments , volume II, London: John Murray, , →OCLC, page 107:

        The chariot jumps, on which thou art. Thou art troubled to hold up thy horses. If it falls into the abyss, the pole drags thee down too. Thy ceintures are pulled away. They fall down. Thou shacklest the horse, because the pole is broken on the path of the narrow pass. Not knowing how to bind it up, thou understandest not how it is to be repaired.

      • 1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, “I Talk with Alan in the Wood of Lettermore”, in Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: , London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC, page 173:

        Nae doubt it's a hard thing to skulk and starve in the heather, but it's harder yet to lie shackled in a red-coat prison.

   2. To connect or couple (something) to another thing using a shackle (noun sense 1.1.1, sense 1.1.2, etc.).
   3. To provide (something) with a shackle.
   4. (figurative)
      1. To inhibit or restrain the ability, action, activity, or progress of (someone or something); to render (someone or something) incapable or ineffectual.

         Synonyms: bind, hamshackle, tie

         Antonyms: free, liberate, unbind, unshackle, untie

         This law would effectively shackle its opposition.

         • a. 1569 (date written), Roger Ascham, “”, in Margaret Ascham, editor, The Scholemaster: Or Plaine and Perfite Way of Teaching Children, to Vnderstand, Write, and Speake, the Latin Tong, , London: John Daye, , published 1570, →OCLC, folios 48, recto – 48, verso:

           t were a plaine ſlauerie, ⁊ iniurie to, to ſhakkle and tye a good witte, and hinder the courſe of a mãs [man's] good nature with ſuch bondes of ſeruitude, in folowyng other.

         • 1632, Edward Reynolds, “The Life of Christ: Or, The Fellowship of the Saints with Him, in His Life, Sufferings, and Resurrection”, in Three Treatises of The Vanity of the Creature. The Sinfulnesse of Sinne. The Life of Christ. , 2nd edition, London: Felix Kyngston for Robert Bostocke, , →OCLC, page 416:

           Of it ſelfe it [the law] is the cord of a Iudge vvhich bindeth hand and foot, and ſhackleth unto condemnation; but by Chriſt it is made the cord of a man, and the band of Love, by vvhich he teacheth us to goe, even as a nurſe her infant.

         • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “[The Fables of Æsop, &c.] Fab LXXV. An Eagle and a Daw.”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: , London: R Sare, , →OCLC, page 74:

           AN Eagle made a Stoop at a Lamb; Truſs'd it, and took it Cleverly avvay vvith her. A Mimical Davv, that ſavv This Exploit, vvould needs try the ſame Experiment upon a Ram: But his Clavvs vvere ſo Shackled in the Fleece vvith Lugging to get him up, that the Shepherd came in, and Caught him, before he could Cleare Himſelf; He Clipt his VVings, and carry'd him Home to his Children to Play vvithal.

         • 1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, “Duty to Parents”, in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, London: J Johnson, , published 1792, →OCLC, page 351:

           he abſurd duty, too often inculcated, of obeying a parent only on account of his being a parent, ſhackles the mind, and prepares it for a ſlaviſh ſubmiſſion to any povver but reaſon.

         • 1962 February 22, Jack Jackson, “Statement of Jack Jackson, Director of Public Relations, the National Grange”, in All-channel Television Receivers: Hearings before the Communications Subcommittee of the Committee on Commerce, United States Senate, Eighty-seventh Congress, Second Session on S. 2109: A Bill to Amend the Communications Act of 1934 in Order to Give the Federal Communications Commission certain Regulatory Authority over Television Receiving Apparatus , Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 240:

           Senator [Gale William] McGee. Again to make sure we haven't contradicted the record here, we do not construe anything you say here this morning to favor shackling the Commission? […] Mr. Jackson. No, sir. Well, this is a matter of semantics. By the same token, we don't—it is not our purpose to give them unrestricted power.

         • 1974 February 5, Jim Stafford (lyrics and music), “Swamp Witch”, in Jim Stafford, performed by Jim Stafford, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif.: MGM Records, →OCLC:

           Some say the plague was brought by Hattie / There was talk of a hangin' too. / But the talk got shackled by the howls and the cackles / From the bowels of the Black Bayou.

         • 2011 February 12, Phil McNulty, “Man Utd 2 – 1 Man City”, in BBC Sport‎, archived from the original on 2024-05-08:

           Rooney, superbly shackled by City defender Vincent Kompany for so long as Ferguson surprisingly left Dimitar Berbatov on the bench, had previously cut a forlorn and frustrated figure but his natural instincts continue to serve him and United so well.

      2. (chemistry, obsolete) To combine (a substance) with another substance.
         • 1675 April 4 (Gregorian calendar), Nehemiah Grew, “ A Discourse of the Diversities and Causes of Tasts Chiefly in Plants. Read before the Royal Society, March 25. 1675. Chapter IV. Of the Causes of Tasts.”, in The Anatomy of Plants. , : W. Rawlins, for the author, published 1682, →OCLC, page 288:

           Bitterneſs is produced by a Sulphur vvell impregnated, either vvith an Alkaline, or an Acid Salt, but alſo ſhackled vvith Earth.

         • 1681, Nehemiah Grew, “Of Arborescent Plants”, in Musæum Regalis Societatis. Or A Catalogue & Description of the Natural and Artificial Rarities Belonging to the Royal Society and Preserved at Gresham Colledge. , London: W. Rawlins, for the author, →OCLC, part II (Of Plants), page 224:

           little of that Fixed Salt, ſerves, it ſeems, to Shackle or Cryſtallize (vvhich is a degree of Fixation) a very great quantity of the Eſſential Salt of this Plant.

2. (intransitive, reflexive) Of two things: to connect or couple together.

• hamshackle
• shackler
• shackling (adjective, noun)
• unshackle

From shack (“variant of shake”), shake (verb) +‎ -le (suffix forming agent nouns; frequentative suffix forming verbs).^[6]

shackle (plural shackles) (UK, dialectal)

1. A person who is idle or lazy; an idler.
2. (dice games) A dice game; also, an event at which tickets are sold for chances to be drawn to win prizes; a raffle.

shackle (third-person singular simple present shackles, present participle shackling, simple past and past participle shackled) (UK, dialectal)

1. (transitive)
   1. To rattle or shake (something).
   2. To put (something) into disorder; specifically (agriculture), to cause (standing stalks of corn) to fall over.
2. (intransitive) Often followed by about: to be idle or lazy; to avoid work.

• shackle on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• shackle (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Joseph Wright, editor (1905), “SHACKLE, v.², sb.⁴ and adj.”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: , volume V (R–S), London: Henry Frowde, , publisher to the English Dialect Society, ; New York, N.Y.: G P Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 342, column 1.

• Kachels, Hackles, hackles

From Old English sċacul, sċeacel, sċeacul (“fetter, shackle”), from Proto-Germanic *skakulaz (“shackle”), possibly from *skakaną (“to shake; to swing; to escape”), from Proto-Indo-European *skeg-, *skek- (“to shake; to stir”). However, compare the Oxford English Dictionary which doubts that English shackle is derived from *skeg-, *skek- as these roots lack the meaning of attaching or fastening.^[1]

• IPA^(key): ,

shackle (plural shackles)

1. shackle, fetter, manacle
2. (anatomy) wrist

• shackle-bane (“wristbone, carpal; wrist”)

shackle (third-person singular simple present shackles, present participle shacklin, simple past shackelt, past participle shackelt)

1. to shackle

• “shackle, v., n.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from W Grant and D D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.