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A chain or shackle for the feet; a chain by which an animal is confined by the foot, either made fast or disabled from free and rapid motion; a bond; a shackle. [They] bound him with fetters of brass. Judg. xvi. 21.

Not many; small, limited, or confined in number; -- indicating a small portion of units or individuals constituing a whole; often, by ellipsis of a noun, a few people. "Are not my days few" Job x. 20. Few know and fewer care. Proverb.

. Sir W. Raleigh. Marked stiffness or absolute fixation of a joint. Quain. A fixation and confinement of thought to a few objects. Watts.

To confine in a fold, as sheep.

formal garden, cut into angles and rhomboids. W. Irwing. She took off the formal cap that confined her hair. Hawthorne.

One overattentive to forms, or too much confined to them; esp., one who rests in external religious forms, or observes strictly the outward forms of worship, without possessing the life and spirit of religion. As far a formalist from wisdom sits, In judging eyes, as libertines from wits. Young.

Out, as from a state of concealment, retirement, confinement, nondevelopment, or the like; out into notice or view; as, the plants in spring put forth leaves. When winter past, and summer scarce begun, Invites them forth to labor in the sun. Dryden.

As soon as the thing required may be done by reasonable exertion confined to that object. Bouvier.

Not confined or imprisoned; released from arrest; liberated; at liberty to go. Set an unhappy prisoner free. Prior.

culated headdress or net, made of gold or silver wire, in which ladies in the Middle Ages confined their hair. A fret of gold she had next her hair. Chaucer. Fret saw, a saw with a long, narrow blade, used in cutting frets, scrolls, etc.; a scroll saw; a keyhole saw; a compass saw.

pect a fringe; a line of objects along a border or edge; a border; an edging; a margin; a confine. The confines of grace and the fringes of repentance. Jer. Taylor.

ry which fronts or faces another country or an unsettled region; the marches; the border, confine, or extreme part of a country, bordering on another country; the border of the settled and cultivated part of a country; as, the frontier of civilization.

A place of confinement, especially for minor offenses or provisional imprisonment; a jail. [Preferably, and in the United States usually, written jail.] Commission of general gaol delivery, an authority conferred upon judges and others included in it, for trying and delivering every prisoner in jail when the judges, up…

A building which is occupied by the guard, and in which soldiers are confined for misconduct; hence, a lock-up.

The room occupied by the guard during its term of duty; also, a room where prisoners are confined.

To issue with violence and rapidity, as a fluid; to rush forth as a fluid from confinement; to flow copiously. He smote the rock that the waters gushed out. Ps ixxviii 20. A sea of blood gushed from the gaping wound. Spenser.

A shackle; especially, one to confine the legs; a fetter. [Written also give.] Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves. Shak. With gyves upon his wrist. Hood.

Confined to a hamlet. Feltham.

. J. H. Newman. Atmospheric hammer, a dead-stroke hammer in which the spring is formed by confined air. -- Drop hammer, Face hammer, etc. See under Drop, Face, etc. -- Hammer fish. See Hammerhead. -- Hammer hardening, the process of hardening metal by hammering it when cold. -- Hammer shell (Zoöl.), any species of…

to lay tarpaulins over them, and secure them with battens. -- To be under hatches, to be confined below in a vessel; to be under arrest, or in slavery, distress, etc.