Word of the Day : May 19, 2018

unfettered \un-FET-erd\ adjective

Definition

: free, unrestrained

Did You Know?

A fetter is a chain or shackle for the feet (as used on a prisoner), or, more broadly, anything that confines or restrains. The word derives from Middle English feter and shares an ancestor with Old English fōt, meaning "foot." Fetter and unfetter both function as verbs in English with contrasting literal meanings having to do with the putting on of and freeing from fetters; they likewise have contrasting figurative extensions having to do with the depriving and granting of freedom. The adjective unfettered resides mostly in the figurative, with the word typically describing someone or something unrestrained in progress or spirit. This is how English poet and clergyman John Donne used the word in his early 17th-century work The Progress of the Soule: "To an unfetterd soules quick nimble hast / Are falling stars, and hearts thoughts, but slow pac'd."

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    Choose the best definition or synonym for the word in bold: "There are some eructations that sound like cheers—at least, mine did." Lolita




                                  a clearing of the throat
                                  a groan
                                  a sneeze
                                  a belch








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Aired May 19, 2018

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