Definition of: trammel

(tram′əl) noun
1. That which limits freedom or activity; an impediment; hindrance.
2. A fetter, shackle, or bond, particularly one of such kind as is used in teaching a horse to amble.
3. An instrument whose parts slide on a rod, especially one bearing pointers, for use as a compass, or for describing ellipses.
4. A gage for adjusting machine parts.
5. A two–piece hook, adjustable for length, used to suspend cooking pots from a fireplace crane.
6. A net formed of three layers, the central one being of finer mesh in order to catch the fish which pass through either of the others: also trammel net.
—v.t. ·meled or ·melled, ·mel·ing or ·mel·ling
1. To hinder or obstruct; restrict.
2. To entangle in or as in a snare; imprison. Also tram′el or tram′ell. [<OF tramail a net <LL tramaculum, tremaculum <L tri- three + macula a mesh]
—tram′mel·er or tram′mel·ler noun