the.com/handcuff
two rings that turn defiance into a polite request to stop resisting.
means A pair of linked metal rings that lock around a person's wrists to restrain them, typically used by police during arrest.
from A plain Old English compound: 'hand' is exactly what it sounds like, and 'cuff' meant a glove or mitten, then later the band at the end of a sleeve — so a handcuff was once simply something around the wrist. The restraining-iron sense grew naturally from that, the metal ring taking the place of cloth around the same spot.
- ancient roots
- Manacles date back thousands of years to ancient Egypt.
- escape artist
- Houdini built fame slipping cuffs onstage nightly.
- double lock
- Most cuffs have a second lock preventing tightening.
- key chaos
- One standard key opens most police cuffs worldwide.
- weak link
- The chain, not the metal, is the usual failure point.
slave auction block restraints — iron shackles used to restrain enslaved people at charleston and other u.s. auction houses, 1700s-1860s
bastille prison chains — iron manacles confiscated during the french revolution storming of the bastille, july 14, 1789
alcatraz prisoner restraints — heavy-duty steel handcuffs and leg irons used on high-security inmates at alcatraz federal penitentiary, 1934-1963