Gyve
noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A shackle or fetter, especially for the leg. literary
"[…] 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."
- 1 To shackle, fetter, chain.
"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."
Example
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."
Etymology
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.