shackle
sha kuhl
- n a restraint that confines or restricts freedom (especially something used to tie down or restrain a prisoner)
- n a U-shaped bar; the open end can be passed through chain links and closed with a bar
- v bind the arms of
- v restrain with fetters
- There the big bombSACmen call it a "pig"hung from its single shackle.
- Fortunately, today's crews do not have to wear the heavy ankle irons that used to cause "shackle poison" (the new, handcuff-like shackles are made of lighter metals).
- But it is only in recent years, under the Boer regime of stubborn, stiff-necked Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, that the passbook has become almost a physical shackle.