Merriam-Webster Word of the Day - Trammel

WORD OF THE DAY January 19, 2018

trammel    noun | TRAM-ul     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   Scroll down for more about trammel       WORD GAMES AND QUIZZES: WEEKLY CHALLENGE   What's That From? A Word Origin Quiz   Who'd a thunk?     PLAY NOW     Nailed this quiz? We have plenty more to try!  TAKE ME THERE     Plus:   SEE WHAT LOOKUPS ARE TRENDING NOW!         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."     Examples of TRAMMEL   In her memoir, the singer asserts that her musicianship was ultimately hampered by the trammels of fame.   "We learn a good deal about [Doc] Holliday: his grief at the passing of his mother when he was a teenager, his early career as an Ivy League-trained dentist, his quickness on the draw, his self-reinvention as an adventurer-wanderer, his yearning to shed the trammels of the conventional life." — Richard Bernstein, The New York Times, 22 Aug. 2001   Name That Synonym   What is a synonym of the noun snare that is also the name for a twig covered with a particular substance to catch birds?   VIEW THE ANSWER           USAGE NOTES     Is 'Knots an Hour' Wrong?   Some say knots can only be a measure of speed. Are they right?   FIND OUT

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