27 November 2018
trammel
[tram-uh l]
noun
1. Usually, trammels. a hindrance or impediment to free action; restraint:
the trammels of custom.
2. an instrument for drawing ellipses.
3. Also called tram. a device used to align or adjust parts of a machine.
4. trammel net.
5. a fowling net.
6. a contrivance hung in a fireplace to support pots or kettles over the fire.
7. a fetter or shackle, especially one used in training a horse to amble.
verb (used with object), trammeled, trammeling or (especially British) trammelled, trammelling.
8. to involve or hold in trammels; restrain.
9. to catch or entangle in or as in a net.
Origin of trammel
Middle English, Middle French, Late Latin
1325-1375; Middle English tramayle < Middle French tramail, variant of tremail three-mesh net < Late Latin trēmaculum, equivalent to Latin trē(s) three + macula mesh
Related forms
trammeler; especially British, trammeller, noun
untrammeled, adjective
untrammelled, adjective
Synonyms
1. drag, hobble, curb, inhibition. 8. hinder, impede, obstruct, encumber.
Dictionary.com
Examples from the Web for trammel
Historical Examples
What need have we of these brutal proofs which trammel our liberty?
English Conferences of Ernest Renan
Ernest Renan
Reason is confined within none of the partitions which trammel it in life.
The Book-lover
James Baldwin
I shall not trammel you with any restrictions or annoy you with any advice.
The Deep Lake Mystery
Carolyn Wells
The libraries have not killed sincerity; they have done no more than trammel it.
A Novelist on Novels
W. L. George
The most correct method of drawing an ellipse is by means of an instrument termed a trammel, which is shown in Figure 83.
Mechanical Drawing Self-Taught
Joshua Rose
A trammel was found in the solid substance of a tree in Onondaga.
Personal Memoirs Of A Residence Of Thirty Years With The Indian Tribes On The American Frontiers
Henry Rowe Schoolcraft
Free-Will and Providence do not trammel each other, but harmoniously co-operate to the same end.
Homer’s Odyssey
Denton J. Snider
The bar is set with the index at zero, and the trammel is set at the muzzle velocity used in the computation for the shot.
The Gunner’s Examiner
Harold E. Cloke
This veto power was a trammel, and an unnecessary restraint on the freedom of legislation.
History of the Constitutions of Iowa
Benjamin F. Shambaugh
The National Assembly, sovereign and philosophic, soars above their errors, their trammel ; and their example.
The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 2 (of 6)
Hippolyte A. Taine
Today’s quote
Hate is a bottomless cup; I will pour and pour.
― Euripides
On this day
27 November 1940 – birth of Bruce Lee. (born as Lee Jun-fan), martial artist and actor. Died 20 July 1973.
27 November 1942 – birthday of Jimi Hendrix. American guitarist and singer-songwriter. Died 18 September 1970.
27 November 1975 – Ross McWhirter, co-founder of the Guinness Book of World Records, is shot dead outside his house in North London. Police suspect the Irish Republican Army (IRA) of the murder, as McWhirter had posted a £50,000 reward for information that lead to the arrest of IRA bombers.
27 November 1999 – Helen Clark is elected as New Zealand’s first female Prime Minister. She represented the centre-left of the Labour Party.