Forms: 1 feotor, feter, fetor, 3–7 feter, 4 fet(t)re, south. vetre, (5 feder, fettir, -our, -yr, fetur, -yr, 6 fetrer, fettar), 6– fetter. [OE. feter fem., cogn. with OS. feteros pl. m. (Du. veter m. lace, OHG. feẓẓera, MHG. feẓẓer (early mod. Ger. fesser) fem., ON. fiǫturr m. (Sw. fjättrar pl.):—OTeut. *feterâ, -ro-z, f. fet-(:—OAryan pèd-) ablaut-form of fôt FOOT. Cf. L. pedica, Gr. πέδη of identical meaning and root.]
1. A chain or shackle for the feet of a human being or animal; hence gen. a bond, shackle. (rare in sing.)
c. 800. Corpus Gl., Pedo, vel paturum, feotor.
c. 950. Lindisfarne Gospels, Mark v. 4. Forðon oftust mið feotrum … ȝebunden wæs.
c. 1000. Ags. Ps. lxxviii. 11. On feterum fæste.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 107/20. Ake euere he hadde ane peire feteres faste him up-on.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1255. Festned fettres to her fete under fole wombes.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 1313. Of al hure chaynes he haþ him raft; & ek hure vetres oundo.
c. 1430. Syr Gener. (Roxb.), 2741.
| A pare of fetures on him fest, | |
| And in the pit that he were kest. |
c. 1489. Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, xvi. 370. His feters that were on his fete.
a. 1541. Wyatt, in Tottell’s Misc. (Arb.), 32. Clinkyng of fetrers would such Musick craue.
1652. Ashmole, Theat. Chem., 216.
| And Presun causeth deth and destruction, | |
| Ryngyng of Feteris maketh no mere sown. |
1794. Burke, Sp. W. Hastings. They put these eunuchs into prison without food and water, and loaded their limbs with fetters.
1876. Humphreys, Coin Coll. Man., ix. 107. Antony presented Artarasdes and all his family to Cleopatra, in golden fetters; and the Egyptian queen is said to have exercised her power, almost for the last time, in ordering the decapitation of Artarasdes immediately after the fatal termination of the battle of Actium.
b. pl. = Captivity.
1704. Addison, Poems, The Campaign.
| Ev’n those who ’scape the fetters and the sword, | |
| Nor seek the fortunes of a happier lord, | |
| Their raging kind dishonors, to complete | |
| Marlborough’s great work, and finish the defeat. |
a. 1839. Praed, Poems (1864), I. 210, ‘Lidian’s Love,’ xi.
| Not that I’ve been more wicked in my day | |
| Than some, perhaps, who call themselves my betters; | |
| I liked to prattle better than to pray, | |
| And thought that freedom was as sweet as fetters. |
2. transf. and fig. Anything that confines, impedes, or restrains; a check, restraint.
c. 1000. The Wanderer, 21 (Gr.). Ic modsefan minne sceolde … feterum sælan.
1560. Rolland, The Court of Venus, I. 864.
| Deliuering it ȝow trewlie, | |
| To the beirar agane suithlie, | |
| But falt or fetter. |
1602. Shaks., Ham., III. iii. 25.
| King. Arme you, I pray you to this speedie Voyage; | |
| For we will Fetters put vpon this feare, | |
| Which now goes too free-footed. |
1676. Dryden, Aurengz., Prol. 9. Passion’s too fierce to be in Fetters bound.
1781. Cowper, Hope, 449.
| The sacred book no longer suffers wrong, | |
| Bound in the fetters of an unknown tongue. |
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), IV. 530. If a man improvidently binds himself up by a voluntary deed, and does not reserve a liberty to himself, by a power of revocation; the Court of Chancery wilt not loose the fetters he has put upon himself, but he must lie down under his own folly.
1851. Robertson, Serm., I. xviii. (1860), 305. The worst slavery is that which cramps the noblest powers. Worse, therefore, than he who manacles the hands and feet, is he who puts fetters on the mind, and pretends to demand that men shall think, and believe, and feel thus and thus, because others so believed, and thought, and felt before.
1871. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), IV. xvii. 66. It was William’s policy to keep the conquered land in check by commanding every large town or other important point by one of these fortresses, which became in truth the fetters of England.
