v. [UN-2 4 b. Cf. G. entfesseln.] To free from fetters; to remove the fetters from.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. III. 134. Heo ȝeueþ þe Iayler Gold and grotes … To vn-Fetere þe False.
c. 1400. Gamelyn, 613. The shirreue unfetered him right sone anone.
c. 1412. Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ., 2399. To prison he gooth; he gette no bettre, Til his mainpernour his arrest vnfettre.
1485. Caxton, Paris & V. (1868), 81. He sayd to the freres that they shold unfeter the doulphyn.
1598. Florio, Scatenare, to vnchaine, to vnfetter, to vnshakle.
1611. Cotgr., Destraver, to vnshackle, vngyue, vnfetter.
1748. Smollett, R. Random, xxvii. Captain Oakum … ordered the fellow to be unfettered.
1799. Coleridge, Devil’s Thoughts, xi. He saw the same Turnkey unfetter a man, With but little expedition.
b. In fig. contexts or uses.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, II. 1216. She … gan hire herte vnfettre Out of disdaygns prison but a lyte.
a. 1470. Harding, Chron., CXI. vii. Fyttye batayls and syx he smote, Somtyme the worse, and somtyme had the better;… Lyke as fortune his cause leste vnfeter.
1627. Sanderson, Serm., I. 280. As for whatsoever other hank thou mayst think thou hast over him,… he can … easily unfetter himself from them all.
1671. Woodhead, St. Teresa, I. xx. 136. Whom she desires to see unfettered from the prison of this life.
1766. Blackstone, Comm., II. 345. The transcendent power of parliament is called in … to unfetter an estate.
1830. Herschel, Study Nat. Phil., 8. It unfetters the mind from prejudices of every kind.
c. 1860. Faber, Hymn, Desire of God, v. And the langour of love captive hearts can unfetter.
Hence Unfettering vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
a. 1653. Binning, Serm. (1845), 189. To bring along a Deliverer unto your spirits, for the … unfettering of them from the chains of fleshly lusts.
1824. Miss L. M. Hawkins, Mem., etc., I. 257. Too much of the spirit of John Knox, or something equally unfettering.
1854. J. B. Paton, in Life, iii. (1914), 33. Those words which should for ever consecrate us to His unfettering service.
