Word.ws English Dictionary

manacles

Syllables: man·a·clesUK/ˈmæn.ə.kəlz/

manacles is the plural of manacle.

Meaning of manacle

Noun

manacle (plural manacles)

  1. A shackle for the wrist, usually consisting of a pair of joined rings; a handcuff; (by extension) a similar device put around an ankle to restrict free movement.
    • And gainſt the General we will lift our ſwords
      And either lanch his greedie thirſting throat,
      Or take him priſoner, and his chaine ſhall ſerue
      For Manackles, till he be ranſom’d home.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
  2. (figuratively) A fetter, a restriction.
    • Admit no other way to ſaue his life / [...] that you, his Siſter, / Finding your ſelfe deſir'd of such a perſon, / Whoſe creadit with the Iudge, or owne great place, / Could fetch your Brother from the Manacles / Of the all-building-Law: and that there were / No earthly meane to ſaue him, but that...c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...

See all 3 meanings of manacle

Noun

manacles pl (plural only)

  1. (plural, plural-only) manacle

Origin of manacles

From Middle English manicle, from Old French manicle, from Latin manicula, diminutive form of manus (“hand”).

Questions about manacles

What does manacles mean?
Manacles means manacle.
What is manacles the plural of?
Manacles is the plural of manacle.
What part of speech is manacles?
Manacles is a noun.
How do you pronounce manacles?
Manacles is pronounced /ˈmæn.ə.kəlz/ (UK).

Words near manacles in the dictionary

  1. manacin
  2. manacing
  3. manacle
  4. manacled
  5. manaclelike
  6. manacles
  7. manacling
  8. Manado
  9. manaeesh
  10. Manaet
  11. Manafon

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: manacles (page history and authors); manacle (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.

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Cite this entry: “manacles.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/manacles. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.