trammel

****************************************************************
Announcing the new Merriam-Webster's Learner's Word
of the Day--perfect for ESL students. It's free!
http://www.startsampling.com/sm/wod/learner_signup.html
****************************************************************
The Word of the Day for May 12 is: 

trammel   \TRAM-ul\   noun
     1 : a net for catching birds or fish 
    *2 : something impeding activity, progress, or freedom : restraint -- 
usually used in plural

Example sentence:
     "I cast the miserable trammels of worldly discretion to the winds, and 
spoke with the fervour that filled me...." (Wilkie Collins, _The Moonstone_) 

Did you know?
     A trammel fishing net traditionally has three layers, with the middle one 
finer-meshed and slack so that fish passing through the first net carry some of 
the center net through the coarser third net and are trapped. Appropriately, 
"trammel" traces back to the Late Latin "tremaculum," which comes from Latin 
"tres," meaning "three," and "macula," meaning "mesh." Today, "trammels" is 
synonymous with "restraints," and "trammel" is also used as a verb meaning "to 
confine" or "to enmesh." You may also run across the adjective "untrammeled," 
meaning "not confined or limited."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.