Emily Dickinson Lexicon

FET'TER, n. [Sax. fetor, from foot, feet, as in L. pedica; G. fessel. Chiefly used in the plural, fetters.]

1. A chain for the feet; a chain by which an animal is confined by the foot, either made fast or fixed, as a prisoner, or impeded in motion and hindered from leaping, as a horse whose fore and hind feet are confined by a chain. The Philistines bound Samson with fetters of brass. Judges xvi.
2. Any thing that confines or restrains from motion. Passions too fierce to be in fetters bound. Dryden.