as in to liberate
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Recent Examples of unshackle
While Zimbabwe’s political situation has changed since Mugabe was ousted from power in 2017, the country’s cricket team struggled to unshackle itself from the political interference that started eroding the team in the early 2000s leading to the infamous player revolt in 2004.
—
Tristan Lavalette, Forbes.com, 22 May 2025
The American has been visibly unshackled by her acceptance that tennis results need not define her, taking her to her first Grand Slam title in Australia and to a 23-4 record in 2025 prior to this encounter.
—Charlie Eccleshare, New York Times, 30 Apr. 2025
The campaign centered on a sunny, optimistic vision of a United Kingdom, still a prominent global player, but merely unshackled from the restraints of Brussels.
—Douglas Murray, Foreign Affairs, 10 Nov. 2016
But even that won’t work if a broad majority of Palestinians isn’t willing to unshackle themselves from Hamas’ political and ideological grip.
—Bret Stephens, Mercury News, 4 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for unshackle
Tristan Lavalette, Forbes.com, 22 May 2025
The American has been visibly unshackled by her acceptance that tennis results need not define her, taking her to her first Grand Slam title in Australia and to a 23-4 record in 2025 prior to this encounter.
—Charlie Eccleshare, New York Times, 30 Apr. 2025
The campaign centered on a sunny, optimistic vision of a United Kingdom, still a prominent global player, but merely unshackled from the restraints of Brussels.
—Douglas Murray, Foreign Affairs, 10 Nov. 2016
But even that won’t work if a broad majority of Palestinians isn’t willing to unshackle themselves from Hamas’ political and ideological grip.
—Bret Stephens, Mercury News, 4 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for unshackle
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unshackle
Verb
-
Shaked, who was liberated from the Matthausen camp, was referring to the condition of Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski, young men abducted on Oct. 7, 2023, from the Nova music festival in southern Israel.—
Philissa Cramer,
Sun Sentinel,
11 Aug. 2025
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How did One Piece season 1 end? Season 1 of Netflix's One Piece adaptation ended with Luffy and the Straw Hat gang liberating Nami's hometown of Coco Village from Arlong (McKinley Belcher III), the spiky-nosed fish-man with hopes of turning the village into a fish-men empire.—
EW.com,
EW.com,
11 Aug. 2025
Verb
-
Creators could become emancipated from their platofrms, and communities develop not just social but real currencies.—
Boaz Sobrado,
Forbes.com,
6 Aug. 2025
-
Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 when Union soldiers informed enslaved people in Texas — the last state to enforce slavery — that they’d been emancipated.—
Brian Niemietz,
New York Daily News,
19 June 2025
Verb
-
When Henson refused to unchain herself from the fence, California Highway Patrol arrested her.—
Kate Talerico,
The Mercury News,
7 Aug. 2024
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Max eventually unchains himself and helps Furiosa in her quest to free the cult leader's wives, gaining mutual respect along the way.—
EW Staff,
EW.com,
3 July 2024
Verb
-
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
-
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,
New York Times,
8 July 2022
Verb
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Open primaries would enfranchise more than a million New York voters, who are disproportionately young and represent communities of color.—
John Avlon,
New York Daily News,
7 July 2025
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About a year after the infirmary team returned to the United States, the 19th Amendment became law, enfranchising 27 million women, the largest expansion of voting rights in American history.—
Amy Sohn,
Smithsonian Magazine,
27 June 2025
Verb
-
But for Buddhists, dying is an opportunity to unbind from the past and start again.—
Amanda Whiting,
Vulture,
16 Mar. 2025
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The book was centered on the idea that Russia’s geography is its fate and that there is nothing any ruler can do to unbind himself from the necessities of securing his lands.—
Anton Barbashin,
Foreign Affairs,
31 Mar. 2014
Verb
-
Events unmoor themselves from context.—
Elizabeth Nelson,
New York Times,
6 Oct. 2021
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From the death of her father at 13 to her mother's refusal to take in Owusu and her sister afterward, the author navigates hardships and searches for identity, eventually pulling herself back together following a breakdown that threatens to unmoor her.—
Toni Fitzgerald,
Forbes,
8 June 2021
Verb
-
Tubman’s father had been manumitted by his owner, but Brodess had inherited Tubman, hiring her and her siblings out to neighbors for seasonal work, whether trapping muskrats or clearing land.—
Casey Cep,
The New Yorker,
24 June 2024
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Grant would manumit his one enslaved servant, William Jones, in 1859.—
Harold Holzer,
WSJ,
1 Jan. 2024
Cite this Entry
“Unshackle.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unshackle. Accessed 21 Aug. 2025.
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