Dictionary

beshackle en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /biˈʃæk(ə)l/ (General-American)
• /biˈʃækl̩/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

From be- + shackle.

Meanings

1. (archaic, transitive, uncommon) To shackle.
   • Who this king ſhould bee, beſhackled theyr wits,and layd them a dry ground euery one. 1599, Thomas Nashe, Nashes Lenten Stuffe, […], London: […] N.L.; C. B., page 50:
   • Shall guilded Chains beſhackle you with Fears ? 1704, “An Ironical Encomium on the unparallel'd Proceedings of the Incomparable Couple of Whiggiſh Walloons”, in Poems on Affairs of State, from 1640, to This Present Year 1704, volume III, pages 167-168:
   • Suddenly applause explodes around me. I look up from where I’m crouched in the street and see that Peter, Jesse, and I are surrounded by a circle of gay men. Bare-chested and beshackled; sequined and polo-shirted; mustached and mascara’ed—thirty or forty men are clapping and beaming down at Peter, Jesse, and me. 1997 May 14, Meredith Maran, “Scenes from a Femenist Childhood”, in Notes from An Incomplete Revolution: Real Life Since Feminism, Bantam Books, page 202:

Forms