gyve
/d͡ʒaɪv/
gyve noun: a shackle or fetter, especially for the leg.
Noun
gyve (plural gyves)
- A shackle or fetter, especially for the leg.
- […] I would have thee gone:
And yet no further than a wanton’s bird;
Who lets it hop a little from her hand,
Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves,
And with a silk thread plucks it back again,
So loving-jealous of his liberty.c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and... - With head and heart and hand I’ll strive
To break the rod, and rend the gyve,—
The spoiler of his prey deprive,—1845, William Lloyd Garrison, “The Triumph of Freedom”, in The Liberty Bell, Boston: Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Fair, page 192
- […] I would have thee gone:
Verb
gyve (third-person singular simple present gyves, present participle gyving, simple past and past participle gyved)
- To shackle, fetter, chain.
- Not gyved with connubial relations, I entered upon my migration entirely isolated, with the exception of a canine quadruped whose mordacious, latrant, lusorious, and venatic qualities, are without parity.1856, Samuel Klinefelter Hoshour, Letters to Squire Pedant, in the East, page 13
- "Say, rather, to melt the iron links which gyve soul to body," said Clifton ...1864, “A Fast-Day at Foxden”, in Atlantic Monthly Journal, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2006
gyve meaning in Urdu
gyve in Urdu
- بیڑی, زنجیر پا, بیڑی لگانا
Examples of gyve in a sentence
- ‘I must hie me to the locksmith to have me these gyves removed.’1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 66:
- Our gyves were removed and our possessions returned to us, except for my Banker’s Special.1973, Kyril Bonfiglioli, chapter 15, in Don’t Point That Thing at Me, New York: The Overlook Press, published 2004, page 126:
- Gyved to a squeaky swivel seat in my office, …2008, LD Brodsky, “A Devotee of the Southern Way of Making Love”, in Sheri L. Vadermolen, editor, The Complete Poems of Louis Daniel...
Forms of gyve
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | gyves |
| alternative form | give |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | gyves |
| present participle | gyving |
| past participle | gyved |
| past | gyved |
Origin of gyve
From Middle English *give, *gyve (found only in plural gives, gyves (“shackles; fetters”)). Of uncertain origin, possibly from low dialect taking from Celtic; compare Welsh gefyn (“fetter, shackle”), Irish geibbionn (“fetters”), geimheal (“fetter, chain, shackle”); these are from Proto-Celtic *gem- (“shackle, chain”), from Proto-Indo-European *gem- (“to squeeze, grab, press”), see also Proto-Slavic *žęti, Ancient Greek γέντο (génto). The modern pronunciation with /dʒ/ is due to the spelling. The verb is from Middle English given, gyven (“to shackle”), from the noun.
Words formed from gyve
Words that rhyme with gyve
34 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about gyve
- What does gyve mean?
- Gyve means a shackle or fetter, especially for the leg.
- What is gyve in Urdu?
- Gyve in Urdu is بیڑی, زنجیر پا, بیڑی لگانا. See Gyve meaning in Urdu.
- How do you use gyve in a sentence?
- ‘I must hie me to the locksmith to have me these gyves removed.’
- What part of speech is gyve?
- Gyve can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce gyve?
- Gyve is pronounced /d͡ʒaɪv/.
- What is the plural of gyve?
- The plural of gyve is gyves.
Words near gyve in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: gyve (page history and authors); gyve (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “gyve.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gyve. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.