as in to free
to set free (as from slavery or confinement)
authorities eventually unfettered the menagerie of wild animals that had been kept illegally as pets
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Recent Examples of unfetter
His long run in office, however, delivered only partial victories on his two primary ambitions: to unfetter Japan’s military after decades of postwar pacifism and to jump-start and overhaul its economy through a program known as Abenomics.
—
New York Times, 8 July 2022
As spring ends, maple trees begin to unfetter winged seeds that flutter and swirl from branches to land gently on the ground.
—Nikk Ogasa, Scientific American, 22 Sep. 2021
By manufacturing satellite components in space, Made In Space hopes to unfetter some of those launch constraints.
—Eric Berger, Ars Technica, 2 Aug. 2019
Unfettered by worries about his relationship, Caldwell thrived.
—Jason Blevins, The Denver Post, 18 May 2017
New York Times, 8 July 2022
As spring ends, maple trees begin to unfetter winged seeds that flutter and swirl from branches to land gently on the ground.
—Nikk Ogasa, Scientific American, 22 Sep. 2021
By manufacturing satellite components in space, Made In Space hopes to unfetter some of those launch constraints.
—Eric Berger, Ars Technica, 2 Aug. 2019
Unfettered by worries about his relationship, Caldwell thrived.
—Jason Blevins, The Denver Post, 18 May 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unfetter
Verb
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Thuram drags Tchouameni into the space on the left and Koopmeiners runs towards Cambiaso, freeing up Yildiz to receive in space.—
Anantaajith Raghuraman,
New York Times,
25 Oct. 2025
-
Mele was freed when police linked Locci and Lo Bianco's murders to other killings that had happened when he was incarcerated.—
Emily Blackwood,
PEOPLE,
25 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
Change is uncomfortable, but this transit is here to liberate you in unexpected ways.—
Valerie Mesa,
PEOPLE,
22 Oct. 2025
-
The Warsaw doctors likewise wrote about patients whose hearts failed after they were fed; when Allied soldiers liberated the concentration camps, large numbers of emaciated people died after being given high-calorie foods such as chocolate.—
Clayton Dalton,
New Yorker,
18 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
An internal investigation by Kenvue Brands LLC, the company that owns Neutrogena, revealed the brand’s Makeup Remover Ultra-Soft Cleansing Towelettes tested positive for a bacteria known as pluralibacter gergoviae, per information released by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).—
Toria Sheffield,
PEOPLE,
26 Oct. 2025
-
The White House did not release the size of the donations for all 37 listed.—
Dave Smith,
Fortune,
26 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
In May 2024, our officers helped rescue a bull that had escaped.—
Gabrielle Chenault,
Nashville Tennessean,
21 Oct. 2025
-
Aurora, the husky, had to be rescued by local animal control after chasing a squirrel up a tree in her Indiana backyard and getting stuck on a branch up in the air.—
Kirsty Hatcher,
PEOPLE,
21 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
The number of foreign residents has risen sharply in recent years, reaching a record 3 percent of the population in 2024, as Tokyo cautiously loosened visa rules for workers in key industries such as manufacturing, agriculture, and caregiving.—
Micah McCartney,
MSNBC Newsweek,
25 Oct. 2025
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If your windows are heavily dirty, let the solution sit for a couple of minutes to loosen the dirt.—
Ashlyn Needham,
Southern Living,
24 Oct. 2025
Verb
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This is well over a dozen years before Black people are declared emancipated.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
25 Sep. 2025
-
In the Revolutionary War itself, Britain’s Lord Dunmore had emancipated large numbers of southern slaves as a war measure—a fact well-known in both the 1770s and the 1860s.—
Akhil Reed Amar,
Time,
22 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Unfetter.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unfetter. Accessed 26 Oct. 2025.
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