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servitude Definition

ser·vi·tude (sʉr′və to̵̅o̅d′, -tyo̵̅o̅d′)

noun

  1. the condition of a slave, serf, or the like; subjection to a master; slavery or bondage
  2. work imposed as punishment for crime
  3. Law the burden placed upon the property of a person by a specified right another has in its use

Etymology: ME < MFr < L servitudo < servus, slave: see serf

servitude Synonyms

servitude

n.

confinement, bondage, subjugation; see slavery 1, subjection. See syn. study at slavery.

servitude Law Definition

n

  1. A right to use another’s property without ownership. See easement, license, profit.
  2. A condition of enforced compulsory service.
servitude Usage Examples

Possessives

  • year: He imposed a sentence of fifteen years ' penal servitude.

Converse of object

  • indenture: Many were only forced into indentured servitude, laboring in apple orchards for large landowners.
  • abolish: S. 1(1 ) abolished penal servitude and replaced it with imprisonment.
  • enforce: We also raise awareness on the subjects of child labor and enforced domestic servitude of children and many other issues.
  • impose: Hitlerism imposes servitude not only on the body but on the mind and even on the spirit.
  • include: These include domestic servitude, sexual exploitation and benefit fraud.

Preposition: for

  • life: The Act replaced the death penalty for abortion by penal servitude for life.
  • year: This was commuted to penal servitude for ten years.
  • offense: The three men who made this ill-starred attempt to escape were all doing long terms of penal servitude for serious offenses.

Adjective modifier

  • penal: Penal servitude will only be like waiting for her at a wayside station.
  • involuntary: But you are not in involuntary servitude to the powers of the commonplace and the terrible domination of the everyday.
  • perpetual: A dependant economy designed to reduce the indigenous population to perpetual servitude soon developed.
  • domestic: Caroline Herschel was rescued by William from a life of domestic servitude under her mother in Hanover.
  • such: But now such servitude is being imposed under the program of Jubilee 2000.
  • voluntary: Based on the writings of Foucault on voluntary servitude.

Modifies a noun

  • right: This case had involved a land-locked piece of ground in connection with which there had been a servitude right of access.
  • sentence: How is it possible to have respect for just punishment if this scandalous penal servitude sentence is correct?
servitude Quotes

I am as free as nature first made man, Ere the base laws of servitude began, When wild in woods the noble savage ran.

—Dryden,John

History may be servitude, History may be freedom.

—Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)

The revelation of Thought takes men out of servitude into freedom.

—Emerson, RalphWaldo

En matie'  re de presse, il n'y a donc re¤  ellement pas de milieu entre la servitude et la licence. Pour recueillir les biens inestimables qu'assure la liberte¤   de la presse, il faut Tocqueville savoir se soumettre aux maux ine¤  vitables qu'elle fait na|"tre. As for the press, there is no middle way between servitude and extreme licence. In order to enjoy the invaluable benefits ensured by freedom of the press, it is necessary to submit to the inevitable evils that it engenders.

—Tocqueville, Alexis Charles Henri Cle¤  rel de

Since then they have pulled our ploughs and borne our loads. But that free servitude still can pierce our hearts. Our life is changed; their coming our beginning.

—Muir, Edwin

The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime, and the punishment of his guilt.

—Curran,John Philpot

This is servitude, To serve th'unwise, or him who hath rebelled Against his worthier, as thine now serve thee, Thyself not free, but to thyself enthralled.

—Milton,John