gyve

• give

From Middle English *give, *gyve (found only in plural gives, gyves (“shackles; fetters”)). Of uncertain origin. Compare Welsh gefyn (“fetter, shackle”), Irish geibbionn (“fetters”), geimheal (“fetter, chain, shackle”).

The verb is from Middle English given, gyven (“to shackle”), from the noun.

• IPA^(key): /dʒaɪv/, /ɡaɪv/
• Rhymes: -aɪv
• Homophone: jive

gyve (plural gyves)

1. A shackle or fetter, especially for the leg.
   • c. 1594, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene 2,

     […] 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.

   • 1845, William Lloyd Garrison, “The Triumph of Freedom” in The Liberty Bell, Boston: Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Fair, p. 192,

     With head and heart and hand I’ll strive

     To break the rod, and rend the gyve,—

     The spoiler of his prey deprive,—

   • 1973, Kyril Bonfiglioli, Don’t Point That Thing at Me, New York: The Overlook Press, 2004, Chapter 15, p. 126,

     Our gyves were removed and our possessions returned to us, except for my Banker’s Special.

gyve (third-person singular simple present gyves, present participle gyving, simple past and past participle gyved)

1. to shackle, fetter, chain
   • 1864, “A Fast-Day at Foxden”, in Atlantic Monthly Journal‎, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2006:

     "Say, rather, to melt the iron links which gyve soul to body," said Clifton ...

   • 2008, LD Brodsky, “A Devotee of the Southern Way of Making Love”, in Sheri L. Vadermolen, editor, The Complete Poems of Louis Daniel Brodsky: Volume Four, 1981-1985‎, Time Being Books, →ISBN, page 419:

     Gyved to a squeaky swivel seat in my office, …

• down-gyved

gyve (present tense gyv, past tense gauv, past participle gove, present participle gyvande, imperative gyv)

1. Alternative form of gyva