Definition of unfettered
: free, unrestrained
- unfettered access
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unfettered was our Word of the Day on 05/19/2018. Hear the podcast!
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Recent Examples of unfettered from the Web
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Where the film truly shines, though, is in its perfect depiction of the curiosity, insecurity, exuberance, and unfettered idealism that comes with being, say, 15 years old and impossibly smart.
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The administration allowed an adversarial reporter unfettered access to the West Wing for most of Trump’s first six months in office.
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The trend probably will continue now that Orban and his allies have unfettered power in the parliament, said Gyorgy Gemesi, mayor of a prosperous Budapest suburb.
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That's not to say there's no restrictions, unfettered.
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Judge Ellis then opined that the American people do not want a special counsel with unfettered power and even went so far as to ask when the investigation would conclude.
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But just inviting him to sit in judgment with limited moments of real self-reflection brought out a tendency in Comey that’s been there throughout his TV career — his tendency towards sheer unfettered self-confidence.
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The only social system in which this morality can survive is completely unfettered capitalism, where to be selfish is to be good.
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Still, the unfettered expression of feeling inevitably gives rise to conflicts about whose feelings should take precedence.
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
circa 1631
UNFETTERED Defined for English Language Learners
Definition of unfettered for English Language Learners
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: not controlled or restricted
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