trammel

Meanings

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

1. To entangle, as in a net.
2. To confine; to hamper; to shackle.

1. A surname.

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”).