handcuff

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a locking metal or plastic restraint placed around a wrist, usually used as one of a joined pair

   The officer closed one handcuff around the prisoner's wrist.

2. 2
   verb

   to fasten a person's wrists with handcuffs

   Police may handcuff a suspect who presents an immediate danger.

3. 3
   verb

   figurative: to restrict someone or something severely

   Rigid rules can handcuff teams that need to respond quickly.

Formed from hand + cuff and first recorded in the late sixteenth century. It may echo Old English handcops 'shackles for the hands,' but the long gap in attestation means the modern compound is generally treated as a later re-formation.

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