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e, as the coarse part of flax or hemp from the fine, by drawing it through the teeth of a hackle or hatchel.

To fasten (an animal) by a rope binding the head to one of the fore legs; as, to hamshackle a horse or cow; hence, to bind or restrain; to curb.

nted; falling to pieces; out of repair. There came . . . my lord the cardinal, in his ramshackle coach. Thackeray.

on; specifically, a ring or band inclosing the ankle or wrist, and fastened to a similar shackle on the other leg or arm, or to something else, by a chain or a strap; a gyve; a fetter. His shackles empty left; himself escaped clean. Spenser.

To loose from shackles or bonds; to set free from restraint; to unfetter. Addison.

mulated their chief in the richness of their appointments. Prescott. I'll prove it in my shackles, with these hands Void of appoinment, that thou liest. Beau. & Fl.

A long bar or bolt of iron with sliding shackles, and a lock at the end, to confine the feet of prisoners or offenders, esp. on board of ships. Methought I lay Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Shak.

An iron to fasten the legs of a prisoner; a shackle; a fetter. [Obs.] Away with him to prison! lay bolts enough upon him. Shak.

or by which anything is fastened or bound, as a cord, chain, etc.; a band; a ligament; a shackle or a manacle. Gnawing with my teeth my bonds in sunder, I gained my freedom. Shak.

Affecting like a canker. "Canrerous shackles." Thomson. Misdeem it not a cankerous change. Wordsworth.

A floating perforated box for living fish. [U. S.] Car coupling, or Car coupler, a shackle or other device for connecting the cars in a railway train. [U. S.] -- Dummy car (Railroad), a car containing its own steam power or locomotive. -- Freight car (Railrood), a car for the transportation of merchandise or other goo…

inks of a chain. When perfect, the calicles show twelve septa. -- Chain coupling. (a) A shackle for uniting lengths of chain, or connecting a chain with an object. (b) (Railroad) Supplementary coupling together of cars with a chain. -- Chain gang, a gang of convicts chained together. -- Chain hook (Naut.), a hook, u…

One who couples; that which couples, as a link, ring, or shackle, to connect cars. Coupler of an organ, a contrivance by which any two or more of the ranks of keys, or keys and pedals, are connected so as to act together when the organ is played.

To prepare for fighting, as a gamecock, by trimming the hackles and cutting off the comb and wattles. To dub a fly, to dress a fishing fly. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell. -- To dub out (Plastering), to fill out, as an uneven surface, to a plane, or to carry out a series of small projections.

room, house, etc.; as, an empty chest, room, purse, or pitcher; an empty stomach; empty shackles.

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.

achine for removing the woody portion of flax from the fibrous. -- Flax comb, a hatchel, hackle, or heckle. -- Flax cotton, the fiber of flax, reduced by steeping in bicarbinate of soda and acidulated liquids, and prepared for bleaching and spinning like cotton. Knight. -- Flax dresser, one who breaks and swingles f…

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.

To put a hamper or fetter on; to shackle; to insnare; to inveigle; hence, to impede in motion or progress; to embarrass; to encumber. "Hampered nerves." Blackmore. A lion hampered in a net. L'Estrange. They hamper and entangle our souls. Tillotson.

ng flax or hemp from the tow, hards, or coarse part; a kind of large comb; -- called also hackle and heckle.