Word.ws English Dictionary

unshackle

unshackle verb: to remove shackles from someone or something.

Verb

unshackle (third-person singular simple present unshackles, present participle unshackling, simple past and past participle unshackled)

  1. To remove shackles from someone or something.
    • The captain ordered that the guards unshackle and release the prisoner, as he had served his sentence.
    • The sooner the railway can unshackle itself from DfT the better.2022 September 7, Philip Haigh, “Wireless coverage leaves us hanging on our telephones”, in RAIL, number 965, page 43
    Synonyms:
    unchain
  2. To remove restrictions or inhibitions; to allow full freedom and power.
    • Painting was, as it were, a new art, and being unshackled by old models it chose its own subjects, and took an eagle’s flight.1818, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, On Poesy or Art

Synonyms of unshackle

Forms of unshackle

third-person singular presentunshackles
present participleunshackling
past participleunshackled
pastunshackled

Origin of unshackle

From un- + shackle.

Questions about unshackle

What does unshackle mean?
Unshackle means to remove shackles from someone or something.
What part of speech is unshackle?
Unshackle is a verb.
What is the past tense of unshackle?
The past tense of unshackle is unshackled.

Words near unshackle in the dictionary

  1. unsexualized
  2. unsexually
  3. unsexy
  4. unsgd.
  5. unshabby
  6. unshackle
  7. unshackled
  8. unshackledness
  9. unshackles
  10. unshackling
  11. unshacklings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: unshackle (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: “unshackle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/unshackle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.