befetter

From be- +‎ fetter.

befetter (third-person singular simple present befetters, present participle befettering, simple past and past participle befettered)

1. (transitive) To confine with fetters; restrain as if by fetters.
   • 1837, Thomas Carlyle, chapter X, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume II (The Constitution), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book I (The Feast of Pikes), page 52:

     They are the mute representatives of their tongue-tied, befettered, heavy-laden Nations; who from out of that dark bewilderment gaze wistful, amazed, with half-incredulous hope, towards you, and this your bright light of a French Federation[.]

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “befetter”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.