untethered from
- adjective
:
desatado de
- Once she realized that her past mistakes no longer defined her, she became untethered from self-doubt.
- become untethered from
Examples
-
After leaving the strict guidelines of her previous job, she felt untethered from any heavy expectations.
-
Untethered from the rock-hard rituals of high school, I had been set adrift, floating between adolescence and real life, a place I had heard about that both terrified and seduced me.
Fiction book (2000) -
Yes, this person is untethered from reality.
-
He'd been frightened of any tendency to sit and let his mind wander like a goat untethered from a chain, free to crop any grass it pleased.
Fiction book (2000) -
Vengeance-based theories of punishment, once untethered from the human element that makes them comprehensible, cease to make sense when the abstract metaphysical construct of "society" is taken to be the victim of a crime.
Academic text (2017) -
Legal analyses premised on countermeasure doctrine present a danger of becoming untethered from their original conditions, and like the policies they support, may migrate to new, unintended international relations contexts.
Academic text (2017) -
With his parents moving to another country, he finally felt untethered from their controlling influence.
Synonyms
5
5.2
Not tied or held, able to move and act freely
5
6.7
Not tied to anything and able to move freely
3
7.0
Not held in place and often feels unstable or uncertain
3
3.9
Not joined or linked to something else
3
4.4
Not held by chains and free to act or feel as you want
2
5.7
Free from chains or things that hold someone back
2
4.3
Something loose and not fixed to the thing it belongs to
2
1.6
Free from ropes or chains and able to move
2
4.2
Not fixed to anything so it can move freely
1
4.9
Not joined to something it was attached to before
1
5.3
Free to move or act without being stopped
1
4.9
Not connected or related to something else, like two separate events
Not attached or held in place so it can move
Free from something that holds you so you can move or act
Not connected to another thing, like a beam or wire
Separated so parts are not connected anymore
Not physically connected or locked so parts can move apart
Free from knots or tangles and easy to understand
Free of knots and twists and easy to separate or understand
Free from rules or limits that stop people from acting
Antonyms
How Free
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'not connected or secured to' is directly derivable from the constituents: 'untethered' (un- + tethered = not tied or secured) combined with 'from' indicating separation. This is a straightforward, compositional pattern that a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would readily understand.
Etymology
Untethered from comes from the image of a rope or line, a tether, being cut or removed so an animal or boat can move away. So when someone is untethered from something today, they are 'not connected or secured' and feel free from that thing.