trammel

 
Pronunciation: /ˈtram(ə)l/

noun

  • 1 (trammels) literary restrictions or impediments to freedom of action: we will forge our own future, free from the trammels of materialism
  • 2 (also trammel net) a three-layered dragnet, designed so that a fish entering through one of the large-meshed outer sections will push part of the finer-meshed central section through the large meshes on the further side, forming a pocket in which the fish is trapped.
  • 3an instrument consisting of a board with two grooves intersecting at right angles, in which the two ends of a beam compass can slide to draw an ellipse.
    [ early 18th century: so named because the motion of the beam is ‘restricted’ by the grooves]
  • a beam compass.
  • 4US a hook in a fireplace for a kettle.

verb (trammels, trammelling, trammelled; US trammels, trammeling, trammeled)

[with object]
  • deprive of freedom of action: those less trammelled by convention than himself

Origin:

late Middle English (in trammel (sense 2 of the noun)): from Old French tramail, from a medieval Latin variant of trimaculum, perhaps from Latin tri- 'three' + macula 'mesh'