trammel

name

1. A surname.

noun

Etymology: From Middle English trameyle, from Old French tramail (“net for catching fish”), from Late Latin tremaculum, from tri- (“tri-”) + macula (“spot, speck; mesh, cell”). Cognate with Italian tramaglio (“trammel”), Spanish trasmallo (“drift net”).

1. Whatever impedes activity, progress, or freedom, such as a net or shackle.

   “[They] disclaim the trammels of any sordid contract.”

   “The men who came here were able to throw off all the trammels of tradition and established doctrine.”

2. A fishing net that has large mesh at the edges and smaller mesh in the middle
3. A kind of net for catching birds, fishes, or other prey.

   “1633, The tuck carrieth a like fashion , save that it is narrower meshed , and ( therefore scarce lawful ) with a long bunt in the midst : the trammel differeth not much from the shape of this bunt, and serveth to such use as the wear and haking.”

4. A vertical bar with several notches or chain of rings suspended over a fire, used to hang cooking pots by a hook which has an easily adjustable height.
5. Braids or plaits of hair.

   “Her golden lockes she roundly did uptye In breaded tramels, that no looser heares Did out of order stray about her daintie eares.”

6. A kind of shackle used for regulating the motions of a horse and making it amble.
7. An instrument for drawing ellipses, one part of which consists of a cross with two grooves at right angles to each other, the other being a beam carrying two pins (which slide in those grooves), and also the describing pencil.
8. A beam compass.

verb

Etymology: From Middle English trameyle, from Old French tramail (“net for catching fish”), from Late Latin tremaculum, from tri- (“tri-”) + macula (“spot, speck; mesh, cell”). Cognate with Italian tramaglio (“trammel”), Spanish trasmallo (“drift net”).

1. To entangle, as in a net.

   “the scarce-snatched hours Which deepening pain left to his lordliest powers: — Heaven lost through spider-trammelled prison-bars.”

2. To confine; to hamper; to shackle.

   “In their vote, you would get something of some value, at least, however small; but in the other case, only the trammelled judgment of an individual, of no significance, be it which way it might.”

   “Virtuous motives, trammeled by inertia and timidity, are no match for armed and resolute wickedness.”