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   trammel

   /ˈtraml/

   noun

   • 1. restrictions or impediments to freedom of action: literary "we will forge our own future, free from the trammels of materialism"
   • 2. a three-layered dragnet, designed so that a fish entering through one of the large-meshed outer sections will push part of the finer-meshed central section through the large meshes on the further side, forming a pocket in which the fish is trapped.
   • 3. an instrument consisting of a board with two grooves intersecting at right angles, in which the two ends of a beam compass can slide to draw an ellipse.
   • ▪ a beam compass.
   • 4. a hook in a fireplace for a kettle. US

   verb

   • 1. deprive of freedom of action: "we have no wish to be trammelled by convention"

   Word Origin late Middle English (in trammel (sense 2 of the noun)): from Old French tramail, from a medieval Latin variant of trimaculum, perhaps from Latin tri- ‘three’ + macula ‘mesh’.

   Scrabble Points: 11

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