From the M-W Editors
unfettered was our Word of the Day on 06/07/2012. Hear the podcast!
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Recent Examples of unfettered from the Web
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The point is to ensure that one’s experience of the internet is unfettered by outside interests.
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Wochit Stressful environments and unfettered access to information may have boosted the number of teens and children hospitalized for suicidal thoughts or actions.
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Mr. Severson spoke with top White House aides to discuss a compromise on surfing hours but remained discouraged at having to battle for unfettered access.
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With Donald Trump in office, ICE was no longer following the enforcement guidelines set by President Obama; the agency had fresh, and virtually unfettered, discretion to go after anyone who was undocumented.
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For instance, last May the European Court of Justice ruled that an agreement allowing the Department of Homeland Security nearly unfettered access to European Airlines databases was invalid.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'unfettered'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Did You Know?
A fetter is a chain or shackle for the feet (as on a prisoner), or, more broadly, anything that confines or restrains. The word derives from Middle English "feter" and shares a relationship with Old English fot, meaning "foot." In current English "unfettered" typically suggests that someone or something is figuratively "unchained," or unrestrained in progress or spirit. The poet John Donne is believed to have been the first to use "unfettered" in this way, in his 1601 work The Progress of the Soule: "To an unfetterd soules quick nimble hast / Are falling stars, and hearts thoughts, but slow pac'd."
First Known Use of unfettered
1601
UNFETTERED Defined for English Language Learners
unfettered
playDefinition of unfettered for English Language Learners
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: not controlled or restricted
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