Meaning of Manacle | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A shackle for the wrist, usually consisting of a pair of joined rings; a handcuff; (by extension) a similar device put around an ankle to restrict free movement.
2. A fetter, a restriction.
   figuratively

Equivalents

Examples

“And gainſt the General we will lift our ſwords And either lanch his greedie thirſting throat, Or take him priſoner, and his chaine ſhall ſerue For Manackles, till he be ranſom’d home.”

“If 'gainſt your ſelfe you be incens'd, wee'le put you / (Like one that meanes his proper harme) in Manacles, / Then reaſon ſafely with you: [...]”

If you are angry with yourself, we'll put you / (Like one that means to commit suicide) in manacles, / then reason safely with you: …

“For my ſake weare this [a bracelet], / It is a Manacle of Loue, Ile place it / Vpon this fayreſt Priſoner.”

“"If you will go quietly with us we will employ no force," said the man in uniform; "otherwise we must use these;" and Haldane shuddered as light steel manacles were produced.”

“Examining the manacles I saw that they fastened with a massive spring lock.”

“[T]he ships departed with equipment to keep the captives in check. Indeed it is that equipment – notably the chains and manacles – which to this day symbolizes the slave ships themselves. The repressive machinery of the slave ship – cannons, swivel guns, hand guns, cutlasses, chains, manacles, thumbscrews – speaks not only of the fear of the ship's owners and crew but points us directly to the essential reality of the slave ships.”

“Admit no other way to ſaue his life / [...] that you, his Siſter, / Finding your ſelfe deſir'd of such a perſon, / Whoſe creadit with the Iudge, or owne great place, / Could fetch your Brother from the Manacles / Of the all-building-Law: and that there were / No earthly meane to ſaue him, but that either / You muſt lay downe the treaſures of your body, / To this ſuppoſed, or elſe to let him ſuffer: / What would you doe?”

“It is this [the commandment of God], which is the manacle of melancholy, when menacing ſuicide, and when deaf to every other diſſuaſive, or countroul; which quaſhes the ſilent, lurking purpoſe of diſontent, when misjudging it's preſent, and reckleſs of it's future deſtiny.”

“You will wonder how I have escaped the manacles that so long bound me. I cannot explain all now; but thus much I am permitted to say, that they were riveted by certain charms: and I cannot be assured of my freedom till I myself return them to him from whom they came—to him who has so long been the lord of my affections and master of my mind.”

CEFR level