Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use handcuff in a sentence

38 example sentences · noun, verb

Handcuff means one ring of a locking fetter for the hand or one pair. Example: “Dang, I’m handcuffed by these regulations. I’d like to help but it’d be illegal.”

Examples of handcuff by meaning

verbTo apply handcuffs to someone.

  • The sheriff had brought along all the handcuffs necessary, and in a few seconds he had handcuffed Koswell.1912, Arthur M. Winfield, The Rover Boys in the Air
  • The sheriff’s office released a compilation of bodycam footage Friday from deputies at the scene that shows them handcuffing Earl and pinning him down for more than 20 minutes as he struggles and repeatedly shouts for help.2024 September 30, Chelsea Bailey, “‘Take his pulse, he’s blue’: Bodycam footage shows fatal encounter between epileptic Indiana man and...
  • Conservative influencer Nick Sortor is handcuffed Thursday night by a police officer outside an ICE facility in Portland, Oregon, a bystander video shows; the video does not show events leading up to the arrest.2025 October 3, Andy Rose, “Arrest of conservative influencer Nick Sortor outside Portland ICE building now under federal investigation”...

verbTo restrain or restrict.

  • Dang, I’m handcuffed by these regulations. I’d like to help but it’d be illegal.
  • In fact, as he admitted with a grin, it handcuffed him.2016 February 20, “Obituary: Antonin Scalia: Always right”, in The Economist, archived from the original on 01 Dec 2020

More sentences with handcuff

  • Once arrested, I realized that handcuffs are concrete, even if my concept of what is legal wasn't.From the entry concrete
  • They complained that their rules of engagement were handcuffs that guaranteed counterproductivity.From the entry handcuffs
  • The handcuffed suspect gave the officer a desperate butt in the chest.From the entry butt
  • The stock plan really served as golden handcuffs for the executives.From the entry golden handcuffs
  • On his stag night, he was detrousered and left handcuffed to a lamppost.From the entry detrouser
  • In their bedroom I found a wetsuit and handcuffs. The mind boggles!From the entry the mind boggles
  • Only movie criminals get out of handcuffs.From the entry get out of
  • Relatives watch as prisoners in handcuffs and leg irons shuffle past.2014 November 27, Ian Black, “Courts kept busy as Jordan works to crush support for Isis”, in The Guardian. From the entry handcuffs
  • In the room, a bed hangs from the ceiling and is enclosed with bars, with handcuffs available.2011, Eva Christina, The Book of Kink: Sex Beyond the Missionary. From the entry S&M
  • This was the style of the Brezhnev Politburo: velvet handcuffs, but handcuffs nevertheless.2011, Christopher Shulgan, The Soviet Ambassador: The Making of the Radical Behind Perestroika. From the entry velvet handcuffs
  • The dungeon master would suspend his handcuffed victim from that horizontal bar.2010, Jasmine Haynes, “Surrender to Me”, in Hers for the Evening, New York, N.Y.: Heat/Berkley Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 271. From the entry dungeon master
  • On occasion, some golfers get carried away at the nineteenth hole, sometimes in handcuffs.2007, John H. Minan, The Little Green Book of Golf Law: The Real Rules of the Game of Golf, →ISBN, page 145. From the entry nineteenth hole
  • He was stripped, handcuffed, and forced to watch as they tossed his cell.2003, Joseph Wambaugh, Fire Lover, page 258. From the entry toss
  • Following another fifteen-minute flurry of wolf tickets, young deputy Camel does the handcuff routine again.2002, Jimmy Lerner, quoted in African American Slang: A Linguistic Description (2015). From the entry wolf ticket
  • No way I was going to let him put handcuffs on her.1997, William Ayers, A kind and just parent: the children of juvenile court, Beacon Pr. From the entry shorty
  • One pair of handcuffs will put both hands out of commission.1909, Mary Roberts Rinehart, “At the Table Next”, in The Man in Lower Ten, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC, page 200. From the entry out of commission
  • We were handcuffed to each other, then bundled into a meatwagon for the journey across Madrid to the Carabanchel prison.2012, Christopher Chance, The Lone Brit on 13: A Prisoner's Hell in Spain's Toughest Jail, →ISBN. From the entry meatwagon
  • Chinese yo-yos, candy, handcuffs—just a bevy of stuff—and I'd usually convince him to give me some of it.2011, Ryan Zimmerman, I was a Bad Kid - The True Tales of a Deceptive Child, →ISBN, page 3. From the entry bevy
  • The bilboes looked like handcuffs that went around the ankles.2001, Glen David Gold, Carter Beats The Devil. From the entry bilboes
  • As Lyons was struggling for air, the officer handcuffed him and continued to apply the choke hold until Lyons blacked out.2001, Lisa A. Kloppenberg, “The Court Uses Standing to Discourage Redress for Racial Wrongs”, in Playing it Safe: How the Supreme Court…. From the entry chokehold
  • They were put to the ground and handcuffed.1994, Sim B. Sitkin, Robert J. Bies, The Legalistic organization. From the entry cop-wise
  • He had him in a handlock but had not yet succeeded in placing his arm around behind him for handcuffing.1989, New York (State)., New York Court of Appeals. Records and Briefs. From the entry handlock
  • Glossop will return from his afternoon off to find the awful majesty of the Law waiting for him, complete with handcuffs.1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XX, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC. From the entry murmur
  • Second watch: (Produces handcuffs) Here are the darbies.1922 February 2, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC. From the entry darbies
  • Best come quiet." He made a grab with the handcuffs.1916, W.A. Darlington, “A Dress Rehearsal”, in Punch, volume 161, page 80. From the entry comerlongerme
  • The officer would put the prisoner in the back seat of a patrol car in handcuffs, but not in a seat belt.2018 April 10, David E. Barlow, Melissa Hickman Barlow, Police in a Multicultural Society: An American Story, Second Edition, Waveland…. From the entry screen test
  • "I've been suspicioning here was where they got their information right along," the sheriff commented, and slipped the handcuffs on the landlord.2012, B. M. Bower, Cow-Country, page 195. From the entry suspicion
  • Lined handcuffs dangled from the ends.2010, Jasmine Haynes, “Surrender to Me”, in Hers for the Evening, New York, N.Y.: Heat/Berkley Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 271. From the entry dungeon master
  • Go tell dem natty dreadlocks no wear handcuff,” advises Damian Marley, his guest star and younger brother, who accuses the officers of jealousy.2007 February 25, Sia Michel, “Stephen Marley in Tallahassee, M.I.A. in India and Klaxons on Fire”, in New York Times. From the entry dem
  • Video taken during the scrum appears to show McIver using her body to push past federal agents and get to Baraka as he was being taken away in handcuffs.2025 May 20, Shania Shelton and Holmes Lybrand, “Democratic congresswoman says federal charges in ICE facility scuffle are ‘absurd’”, in CNN. From the entry McIver
  • They dressed officers with new, military-style uniforms, gave them antistab vests and equipped them with equipment like extendable metal batons and clubs that turn into handcuffs.2009 May 31, Sarah Lyall, “Critics Assail British Police for Harsh Tactics During the G-20 Summit Meeting”, in New York Times. From the entry antistab
  • At last they hit on a bright idea; they put John’s arms around a lamp post, handcuffed him, and sauntered off to collect the sack of carnal evidence.1936 November, Julian Dana, “‘God—Grant—Victory’”, in The Man Who Built San Francisco: A Study of Ralston’s Journey with Banners, New…. From the entry johnless
  • Inevitably, it turns out, singing other people's songs or having to collaborate with one's bandmates can sometimes feel like a prison sentence, albeit one with velvet handcuffs and minimum security.2004 March 13, Billboard, volume 116, number 11, page 11. From the entry velvet handcuffs

Meaning of handcuff

  1. noun One ring of a locking fetter for the hand or one pair.
  2. verb To apply handcuffs to someone.
  3. verb To restrain or restrict.

Full definition of handcuff

Questions about handcuff in a sentence

How do you use handcuff in a sentence?
Handcuff is used as a noun and verb. For example: “Dang, I’m handcuffed by these regulations. I’d like to help but it’d be illegal.”
What is a short sentence with handcuff?
“Lined handcuffs dangled from the ends.”
What does handcuff mean?
Handcuff means one ring of a locking fetter for the hand or one pair.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: handcuff (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use handcuff in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/handcuff. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.