trammel
pronunciation
How to pronounce trammel in British English: UK [ˈtræml]
How to pronounce trammel in American English: US [ˈtræməl]
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- Noun:
- a fishing net with three layers; the outer two are coarse mesh and the loose inner layer is fine mesh
- an adjustable pothook set in a fireplace
- a restraint that is used to teach a horse to amble
- a restraint that confines or restricts freedom (especially something used to tie down or restrain a prisoner)
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- Verb:
- catch in or as if in a trap
- place limits on (extent or access)
Word Origin
- trammel (n.)
- mid-14c., "net to catch fish" (implied in trammeller "one who fishes with a trammel net"), from Old French tramail "fine-gauged fishnet" (13c.), from Late Latin tremaculum, perhaps meaning "a net made from three layers of meshes," from Latin tri- "three" (see tri-) + macula "a mesh" (see mail (n.2)). Meaning "anything that hinders" is from 1650s, originally "a hobble for a horse" (c. 1500). Italian tramaglio, Spanish trasmallo are French loan-words.
- trammel (v.)
- 1530s, originally "to bind up (a corpse);" sense of "hinder, restrain" is from 1727, from trammel (n.), a figurative use from the literal sense "bind (a horse's legs) with a trammel" (c. 1600). Related: Trammeled; trammeling.
Example
- 1. Car is registered to catherine trammel .
- 2. No longer trammel by his responsibility as chairman , he can say what he wish .
- 3. Lori trammel skanked her way through the entire football team !
- 4. Equally , efforts to get russia to join the world trade organisation should be stepped up , as its rules would usefully trammel theatavistic impulsewithin the regime to slide towards protectionism .
- 5. Mr davutoglu might be reluctant to trammel his dream of an independent foreign policy . But the turks might accept a strategic dialogue so long as it supplemented rather than supplanted its membership talks .