gyve

Meanings

noungyve (plural gyves)

plural gyves · alternative give

literaryA shackle or fetter, especially for the leg.
‘I must hie me to the locksmith to have me these gyves removed.’
1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 66
3 more examples
[…] I would have thee gone: And yet no further than a wanton’s bird; Who lets it hop a little from her hand, Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves, And with a silk thread plucks it back again, So loving-jealous of his liberty.
c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]
With head and heart and hand I’ll strive To break the rod, and rend the gyve,— The spoiler of his prey deprive,—
1845, William Lloyd Garrison, “The Triumph of Freedom”, in The Liberty Bell, Boston: Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Fair, page 192
Our gyves were removed and our possessions returned to us, except for my Banker’s Special.
1973, Kyril Bonfiglioli, chapter 15, in Don’t Point That Thing at Me, New York: The Overlook Press, published 2004, page 126

verbgyve (third-person singular simple present gyves, present participle gyving, simple past and past participle gyved)

present singular third person gyves · participle present gyving · participle past gyved · past gyved · alternative give

To shackle, fetter, chain.
Gyved to a squeaky swivel seat in my office, …
2008, LD Brodsky, “A Devotee of the Southern Way of Making Love”, in Sheri L. Vadermolen, editor, The Complete Poems of Louis Daniel Brodsky: Volume Four, 1981-1985, Time Being Books, →ISBN, page 419
2 more examples
Not gyved with connubial relations, I entered upon my migration entirely isolated, with the exception of a canine quadruped whose mordacious, latrant, lusorious, and venatic qualities, are without parity.
1856, Samuel Klinefelter Hoshour, Letters to Squire Pedant, in the East, page 13
"Say, rather, to melt the iron links which gyve soul to body," said Clifton ...
1864, “A Fast-Day at Foxden”, in Atlantic Monthly Journal, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2006

Origin

Middle Englishgiven
Proto-Indo-European*gem-“to squeeze, grab, press”
Proto-Celtic*gem-“shackle, chain”
Middle English*give
Englishgyve

From Middle English *give, *gyve (found only in plural gives, gyves (“shackles; fetters”)). Of uncertain origin, possibly from low dialect taking from Celtic; compare Welsh gefyn (“fetter, shackle”), Irish geibbionn (“fetters”), geimheal (“fetter, chain, shackle”); these are from Proto-Celtic *gem- (“shackle, chain”), from Proto-Indo-European *gem- (“to squeeze, grab, press”), see also Proto-Slavic *žęti, Ancient Greek γέντο (génto). The modern pronunciation with /dʒ/ is due to the spelling. The verb is from Middle English given, gyven (“to shackle”), from the noun.