- Comment
- Love
Word of the Day : January 19, 2018
trammel \TRAM-ul\ noun
Definition
1 : something impeding activity, progress, or freedom : restraint — usually used in plural
2 : a net for catching birds or fish; especially : trammel net
3 : an adjustable pothook for a fireplace crane
4 : a shackle used for making a horse amble
5 a : ellipsograph
b : beam compass
Did You Know?
A trammel net traditionally has three layers, with the middle one finer-meshed and slack so that fish passing through the first net carry some of the center net through the coarser third net and are trapped. Appropriately, trammel traces back through the Middle English tramayle and the Old French tramail to the Late Latin tremaculum, which comes from Latin tres, meaning "three," and macula, meaning "mesh." Today, the plural trammels is synonymous with restraints, and trammel is also used as a verb meaning "to confine" or "to enmesh." You may also run across the adjective untrammeled, meaning "not confined or limited."
Learn a new word every day, delivered to your inbox!
Test Your Vocabulary
What's That From? A Word Origin Quiz
What language gave the word robot to English?
Czech
German
Latin
Polish
Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?
TAKE THE QUIZ
Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way.
TAKE THE QUIZ
Aired January 19, 2018
All Merriam-Webster content is available at www.merriam-webster.com
- Recommended Recommended
- History & In Progress History
- Browse Library
- Most Popular Library
Get Personalized Recommendations
Let us help you figure out what to learn! By taking a short interview you’ll be able to specify your learning interests and goals, so we can recommend the perfect courses and lessons to try next.
Start InterviewYou don't have any lessons in your history.
Just find something that looks interesting and start learning!