unshackle

verb

Definition of unshacklenext
as in to liberate

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of unshackle In doing so, the killer helped unshackle dark forces—chief among them anti-Semitism—that now threaten to overtake the conservative movement. — Yair Rosenberg, The Atlantic, 4 Feb. 2026 On Friday Mangione arrived at court unshackled in his tan prison garb. — Lorena O’Neil, Rolling Stone, 30 Jan. 2026 Where Ann Lee sought to dance herself clean from the Church of England (and its oppressive insistence that suffering is the surest path to heaven), Fastvold was and remains similarly determined to unshackle herself from the gospel truths of modern film production. — David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 1 Dec. 2025 The defense has also renewed its request for Mangione to sit unshackled at the defense table. — Alice Gainer, CBS News, 1 Dec. 2025 See All Example Sentences for unshackle
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unshackle
  1. liberate
  2. emancipate
  3. unchain
  4. unfetter
  5. enfranchise
  6. unbind
  7. unmoor
  8. uncage
Verb
  • Shedding infrastructure is liberating only if there's a real relationship or service advantage underneath it.
    — Mushfig Aliyev, Forbes.com, 8 July 2026
  • When the United States invaded the Philippines during the Spanish-American War, Twain naively imagined that the country would be liberated and turned into a republic.
    — Ron Chernow, The Atlantic, 2 July 2026
Definition of liberate
Verb
  • In 1775, his first enslaver sold him to the commander of Framingham's Minute Men, who emancipated him, and Salem went on to fight at Lexington and Concord.
    — Catherine Messier, The Providence Journal, 4 July 2026
  • Finally, David ends the episode with a discussion of Shakespeare’s Othello and how ancient plays can emancipate readers from some of their modern prejudices.
    — David Frum, The Atlantic, 17 June 2026
Definition of emancipate
Verb
  • The nationwide standalone 5G that the carrier announced Wednesday essentially unchains that service from 4G LTE, allowing devices to connect to the network without first requiring a setup via AT&T’s older and slower network.
    — PC Magazine, PC Magazine, 9 Oct. 2025
  • When Henson refused to unchain herself from the fence, California Highway Patrol arrested her.
    — Kate Talerico, The Mercury News, 7 Aug. 2024
Definition of unchain
Verb
  • The Safdies are pointedly effective in capturing the way in which a chaotic city’s overall rhythm goes on unfettered even as a character experiences a horrific disruption or glitch in one small part of it.
    — Jon Caramanica, New York Times, 15 Dec. 2019
  • By manufacturing satellite components in space, Made In Space hopes to unfetter some of those launch constraints.
    — Eric Berger, Ars Technica, 2 Aug. 2019
Definition of unfetter
Verb
  • The state is an outlier in taking days to count most votes, but supporters of the system say it is designed to enfranchise more people while protecting against fraud.
    — Praveena Somasundaram, Washington Post, 6 June 2026
  • The Radical Republican Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, as Michael Waldman writes in The Fight to Vote, was even blunter than Sumner about the necessity of enfranchising Black men.
    — Adam Serwer, The Atlantic, 19 May 2026
Definition of enfranchise
Verb
  • This work unbinds the body from centuries of Western imagery, freeing it from representation and opening it to abstraction.
    — Mame-Diarra Niang, Artforum, 2 Nov. 2025
  • But for Buddhists, dying is an opportunity to unbind from the past and start again.
    — Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 16 Mar. 2025
Definition of unbind
Verb
  • The film should be highly disturbing, but the dramatic tension never gels, despite composer Christopher Stacey’s efforts to unmoor us by injecting discordant strings beneath mundane scenes.
    — Peter Debruge, Variety, 18 Feb. 2023
  • To accommodate Campos’s cavalry, P.S.G. has had to unmoor Leandro Paredes, Ander Herrera, Georginio Wijnaldum, Idrissa Gueye, Julian Draxler, Ángel Di Maria and Xavi Simons this summer, too.
    — Rory Smith, New York Times, 2 Sep. 2022
Definition of unmoor
Verb
  • With the help of the wise and mysterious maid Willie May (Latifah) and a stubborn new girl in school played by Mills, the boy must decide whether to set the tiger free and in turn uncage his emotional grief.
    — Etan Vlessing, The Hollywood Reporter, 30 Aug. 2019
Definition of uncage

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Cite this Entry

“Unshackle.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unshackle. Accessed 14 Jul. 2026.

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