Metal restraint devices with two connected loops that lock around a person's wrists, used by police to keep someone from moving.
From 'hand' (Old English 'hand') and 'cuff' (short for 'cuffing'), which originally meant to strike or hit. The word 'cuff' for the wrist restraint evolved from the idea of binding around the cuff of a sleeve. The compound 'handcuffs' became standard in English by the 1600s.
The most common handcuff design was invented by a locksmith named Lyman Newell in 1856, and it's so effective that police still use versions of that exact mechanism today—over 160 years later!
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