unshackle

verb

Definition of unshacklenext
as in to liberate

Related Words

Relevance

Dissimilar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of unshackle Still, lawmakers believe embracing nuclear energy is essential to unshackle the Philippines from volatile global energy markets. — Lorela U. Sandoval, Christian Science Monitor, 25 June 2026 Recently, many have remarked that our great city stands at a crossroads, ready to unshackle itself from the mistakes of the past but uncertain as to how. — Matt Martin, Chicago Tribune, 19 June 2026 And at the end of that war, in 1989, Iran was able to recover because basically it was unshackled. — Isaac Chotiner, New Yorker, 27 Apr. 2026 With his presidency unshackled, his military and other policy decisions are reshaping the economy in real time — and clouding the economic outlook. — Matt Peterson, CNBC, 21 Mar. 2026 See All Example Sentences for unshackle
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unshackle
  1. liberate
  2. emancipate
  3. unchain
  4. unfetter
  5. enfranchise
  6. unbind
  7. unmoor
  8. uncage
Verb
  • Technology can liberate your scrappy plants from overcrowded window boxes, and put a micro-farm in your kitchen.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 22 Oct. 2026
  • This action would have triggered a kilonova while also liberating a lot of material, stuff that would take its time falling onto the black hole and fueling longer jets.
    — Robin George Andrews, Scientific American, 20 Oct. 2026
Definition of liberate
Verb
  • At home, the United States had defeated their armies, destroyed their infrastructure, retaken their territory, emancipated their enslaved, and devastated their economy and society into a catastrophic mess.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 19 Oct. 2026
  • Drew was legally emancipated from her mother at 14 and began living independently.
    — Ashley Hume, FOXNews.com, 18 Aug. 2026
Definition of emancipate
Verb
  • The nationwide standalone 5G that the carrier announced Wednesday essentially unchains that service from 4G LTE, allowing devices to connect to the network without first requiring a setup via AT&T’s older and slower network.
    — PC Magazine, PC Magazine, 9 Oct. 2025
  • When Henson refused to unchain herself from the fence, California Highway Patrol arrested her.
    — Kate Talerico, The Mercury News, 7 Aug. 2024
Definition of unchain
Verb
  • The Safdies are pointedly effective in capturing the way in which a chaotic city’s overall rhythm goes on unfettered even as a character experiences a horrific disruption or glitch in one small part of it.
    — Jon Caramanica, New York Times, 15 Dec. 2019
  • By manufacturing satellite components in space, Made In Space hopes to unfetter some of those launch constraints.
    — Eric Berger, Ars Technica, 2 Aug. 2019
Definition of unfetter
Verb
  • The state is an outlier in taking days to count most votes, but supporters of the system say it is designed to enfranchise more people while protecting against fraud.
    — Praveena Somasundaram, Washington Post, 6 June 2026
  • The Radical Republican Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, as Michael Waldman writes in The Fight to Vote, was even blunter than Sumner about the necessity of enfranchising Black men.
    — Adam Serwer, The Atlantic, 19 May 2026
Definition of enfranchise
Verb
  • This understanding has unbound many, including me, from contagions that have felt far from imaginary.
    — Tony Lobl, Christian Science Monitor, 24 July 2026
  • This work unbinds the body from centuries of Western imagery, freeing it from representation and opening it to abstraction.
    — Mame-Diarra Niang, Artforum, 2 Nov. 2025
Definition of unbind
Verb
  • The film should be highly disturbing, but the dramatic tension never gels, despite composer Christopher Stacey’s efforts to unmoor us by injecting discordant strings beneath mundane scenes.
    — Peter Debruge, Variety, 18 Feb. 2023
  • By Big Tech standards, Netflix has remained a strongly independent company over its 25-year run, spurning big acquisitions and splashy deals that could unmoor its roots.
    — Jacob Carpenter, Fortune, 14 July 2022
Definition of unmoor
Verb
  • With the help of the wise and mysterious maid Willie May (Latifah) and a stubborn new girl in school played by Mills, the boy must decide whether to set the tiger free and in turn uncage his emotional grief.
    — Etan Vlessing, The Hollywood Reporter, 30 Aug. 2019
Definition of uncage

Browse Nearby Words

unsexy
unshackle
unshackled
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Unshackle.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unshackle. Accessed 30 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of reticent

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Pwn, Skibidi, Girlboss and Other Words Added to the 2026 Scrabble Dictionary

The Words of the Week - Oct. 30

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
different halloween monsters in silhouette
A Monstrous Vocab Quiz Words That Go Bump in the Night
See All