- fastened or confined with or as if with a rope, chain, or the like to limit the range of movement:On this field trip, students will have the opportunity to take a ride in a tethered hot-air balloon.Too many lawmakers are partisan, inept, or too lightly tethered to reality.
- (of an electronic device) used to enable a wireless internet connection on another nearby device, often a laptop:You can browse the web more securely using a tethered phone, because your information is being sent directly through the phone rather than over a public wireless hotspot.
- the simple past tense and past participle of tether.
