Meanings
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1
verb
to free a person, activity, or system from restrictions, restraints, or control
The grant could unshackle the researchers from short-term funding demands.
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2
verb
to loosen or remove the physical shackles from a person or animal
The guard knelt to unshackle the prisoner's ankles.
Thesaurus
Etymology
Formed in English from un- ('reverse or remove') + shackle. Shackle descends from Old English scacul, 'fetter,' a Germanic word for a restraint placed around a limb. The literal act of removing irons readily developed the figurative sense of freeing a person, mind, institution, or activity from constraint.