beshackle

B3E1S1H4A1C3K5L1E1
UK/biˈʃækl̩/US/biˈʃæk(ə)l/

verb

To shackle.

First used late 16th c.Scrabble 20
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Meanings

verbbeshackle (third-person singular simple present beshackles, present participle beshackling, simple past and past participle beshackled)

present singular third person beshackles · participle present beshackling · participle past beshackled · past beshackled

  1. archaictransitiveuncommonTo shackle.First known use late 16th c.

    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
    2 more examples

    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

    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 29, Meredith Maran, “Scenes from a Femenist Childhood”, in Notes from An Incomplete Revolution: Real Life Since Feminism, Bantam Books, page 202

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
shackle

Origin

From be- + shackle.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with beshackle

tacklecrackleshacklehacklegracklecacklespackleGacklebackalchackleenshackle
All rhymes →
Cite this entry
APA

beshackle. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/beshackle

MLA

“beshackle.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/beshackle. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “beshackle,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/beshackle.

Source: beshackle on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.