trammel

/ˈtræməl/

trammel noun: whatever impedes activity, progress, or freedom, such as a net or shackle.

Image: Jacques de Solleysel, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

trammel (plural trammels)

Whatever impedes activity, progress, or freedom, such as a net or shackle.
- [They] disclaim the trammels of any sordid contract.1825, Francis Jeffrey, “Campbell's Theodric”, in The Edinburgh Review January 1825
- The men who came here were able to throw off all the trammels of tradition and established doctrine.1898, William Graham Sumner, “The Conquest of the United States by Spain”, in War and Other Essays, Yale, published 1911, page 332
A fishing net that has large mesh at the edges and smaller mesh in the middle.
A kind of net for catching birds, fishes, or other prey.
- 1633,
  The tuck carrieth a like fashion , save that it is narrower meshed , and ( therefore scarce lawful ) with a long bunt in the midst : the trammel differeth not much from the shape of this bunt, and serveth to such use as the wear and haking.
A vertical bar with several notches or chain of rings suspended over a fire, used to hang cooking pots by a hook which has an easily adjustable height.
Braids or plaits of hair.
- Her golden lockes she roundly did uptye
  In breaded tramels, that no looser heares
  Did out of order stray about her daintie eares.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
A kind of shackle used for regulating the motions of a horse and making it amble.
An instrument for drawing ellipses, one part of which consists of a cross with two grooves at right angles to each other, the other being a beam carrying two pins (which slide in those grooves), and also the describing pencil.
A beam compass.

Verb

trammel (third-person singular simple present trammels, present participle (US) trammeling or (UK) trammelling, simple past and past participle (US) trammeled or (UK) trammelled)

To entangle, as in a net.
- the scarce-snatched hours
  Which deepening pain left to his lordliest powers: —
  Heaven lost through spider-trammelled prison-bars.1880, Dante Gabriel Rosetti, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, lines 9–10
(transitive) To confine; to hamper; to shackle.
- In their vote, you would get something of some value, at least, however small; but in the other case, only the trammelled judgment of an individual, of no significance, be it which way it might.1854, Henry David Thoreau, Slavery in Massachusetts
- Virtuous motives, trammeled by inertia and timidity, are no match for armed and resolute wickedness.1948, Winston Churchill, The Second World War

Proper noun capitalized: Trammel

Trammel (plural Trammels)

A surname.

trammel meaning in Tamil and Malayalam

trammel in Malayalam

ജാലം, കുരുക്ക്‌, പ്രതിതബന്ധകം, കെണി, നിരോധകാരണം, ബന്ധനം

Forms of trammel

Noun
plural	trammels
Verb
third-person singular present	trammels
present participle US	trammeling
present participle UK	trammelling
past participle US	trammeled
past US	trammeled
past participle UK	trammelled
past UK	trammelled
Proper noun
plural	Trammels

Origin of trammel

From Middle English trameyle, from Old French tramail (“net for catching fish”), from Late Latin tremaculum, from tri- (“tri-”) + macula (“spot, speck; mesh, cell”). Cognate with Italian tramaglio (“trammel”), Spanish trasmallo (“drift net”).

Words formed from trammel

Phrases with trammel

trammel wheels

Words that rhyme with trammel

Questions about trammel

What does trammel mean?: Trammel means whatever impedes activity, progress, or freedom, such as a net or shackle.
What is trammel in Tamil?: Trammel in Tamil is வளைக்கவராயம். See Trammel meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is trammel?: Trammel can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce trammel?: Trammel is pronounced /ˈtræməl/.
What is the plural of trammel?: The plural of trammel is trammels.

Words near trammel in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: trammel (page history and authors); Trammel (page history and authors); trammel (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); trammel (Malayalam 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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-trammel.wav.

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