1
as in binding
to confine or restrain with or as if with chains
wanted to take the trip, but was handcuffed by her responsibility to watch her ailing father
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in impeding
to create difficulty for the work or activity of
the fear that the new mandatory, standardized tests will handcuff the state's teachers, who will have to specifically tailor their lesson plans for the test
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of handcuffing
The decree requires law enforcement to meet specific goals before federal oversight is removed, including changes to the use of force policy, limiting military-style tactics during protests and banning handcuffing children under 14.
—
Riley Moser,
CBS News,
25 June 2026
The video then cuts to the produce section of the store, where two officers stand off with the man who authorities say is Tabor, tackling him to the ground and handcuffing him.
—
Jazmin Alvarado,
Los Angeles Times,
23 June 2026
The 14-second-long video posted on TikTok on Tuesday shows officers, including ICE agents, handcuffing and arresting people.
—
Sam Peters,
CNN Money,
12 June 2026
However, video footage captured at the event and obtained by The Star seems to show officers pinning teens to the ground, handcuffing at least one.
—
Ilana Arougheti
june 10,
Kansas City Star,
10 June 2026
Cellphone video showed officers handcuffing and pressing him against an unmarked sedan, with his forehead bloodied.
—
Eduardo Cuevas,
USA Today,
16 May 2026
Agents then discharged their weapons and pursued Allen, exchanging gunfire and later tackling and handcuffing him.
—
Zach Lachance,
The Washington Examiner,
26 Apr. 2026
After handcuffing Woods, authorities searched his pockets and found two white pills.
—
R.j. Rico,
Fortune,
3 Apr. 2026
The video sees one officer remove cash, a pair of AirPods, and pills from his pocket during the search before handcuffing him.
—
Shania Russell,
Entertainment Weekly,
2 Apr. 2026
Riley Moser,
CBS News,
25 June 2026
The video then cuts to the produce section of the store, where two officers stand off with the man who authorities say is Tabor, tackling him to the ground and handcuffing him.
—
Jazmin Alvarado,
Los Angeles Times,
23 June 2026
The 14-second-long video posted on TikTok on Tuesday shows officers, including ICE agents, handcuffing and arresting people.
—
Sam Peters,
CNN Money,
12 June 2026
However, video footage captured at the event and obtained by The Star seems to show officers pinning teens to the ground, handcuffing at least one.
—
Ilana Arougheti
june 10,
Kansas City Star,
10 June 2026
Cellphone video showed officers handcuffing and pressing him against an unmarked sedan, with his forehead bloodied.
—
Eduardo Cuevas,
USA Today,
16 May 2026
Agents then discharged their weapons and pursued Allen, exchanging gunfire and later tackling and handcuffing him.
—
Zach Lachance,
The Washington Examiner,
26 Apr. 2026
After handcuffing Woods, authorities searched his pockets and found two white pills.
—
R.j. Rico,
Fortune,
3 Apr. 2026
The video sees one officer remove cash, a pair of AirPods, and pills from his pocket during the search before handcuffing him.
—
Shania Russell,
Entertainment Weekly,
2 Apr. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for handcuffing
Verb
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But his rival, Cepeda, has urged voters to wait for the final, binding count.
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Regulators should commission an independent validation using their own supervisory data before treating these figures as the basis for binding calibration decisions.
Verb
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Smoke could also make for dangerous driving conditions by impeding visibility.
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Wednesday's arrests were part of the 15 charged Tuesday with impeding the work of immigration agents during and after Operation Metro Surge.
Verb
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Morocco lost a pair of 1-0 games before tying Spain but failed to get out of the group stage.
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By late 2024, immigration had become markedly more salient in Irish politics, with anti-immigration candidates gaining traction and political observers tying that shift directly to the riots.
Verb
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The sanctions are hampering work on a broad array of investigations at the court.
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Winds of up to 50 mph stoked the flames and severely limited the fire response by hampering boat and aircraft access to the remote island.
Verb
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One person was cited on suspicion of unlawfully capturing and confining wildlife.
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Bell reviewed testimony from CDC officials and an outside medical expert concerning Perryman’s challenge to an earlier order confining her to the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Verb
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The way most businesses are using AI for marketing is hindering those connections, not helping.
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Over the decades the O’odham placed some barbed wire along the border to keep livestock from straying into the neighboring country, limiting the spread of maladies such as foot-and-mouth disease and hindering cattle thieves.
Verb
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The Baltimore region has suffered too long from underinvestment in transit services — which is shackling economic growth, harming the environment and constraining quality of life for families.
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Men are often the ones in those ICE facilities who are shackling and chaining detainees.
Verb
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He was recaptured and indicted on a charge of obstructing a pending immigration proceeding.
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Victoriano pleaded guilty to obstructing arrest and received unsupervised probation.
Cite this Entry
“Handcuffing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/handcuffing. Accessed 27 Jun. 2026.
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