Slavery definition

slāvə-rē, slāvrē
slaveries
See word origin
Frequency:
The condition in which one person is owned as property by another and is under the owner's control, especially in involuntary servitude.
noun
15
1
The condition of being subject or addicted to a specified influence.
noun
9
2
The condition of being a slave; bondage; servitude.
noun
5
2
The owning or keeping of slaves as a practice or institution; slaveholding.
noun
4
2
A condition of submission to or domination by some influence, habit, etc.
noun
3
2
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Hard work or toil like that done by slaves; drudgery.
noun
2
2
(figuratively) A condition in which one is captivated or subjugated, as by greed or drugs.
noun
2
2
A mode of production in which slaves constitute the principal work force.
noun
1
1
An institution or social practice of owning human beings as property, especially for use as forced laborers.
noun
1
1
A condition of servitude endured by a slave.
noun
1
1
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Slavery is someone owning another person.

An example of slavery is the ownership of blacks by whites before the Civil War.

noun
1
2
A condition of hard work and subjection.

Wage slavery.

noun
1
2
The practice of owning slaves.
noun
1
2

Other Word Forms

Noun

Singular:
slavery
Plural:
slaveries

Origin of slavery

  • From slave +"Ž -ery.

    From Wiktionary

Slavery Sentence Examples

  • Then war can become obsolete, as foreign to us as slavery and public hangings.

  • Although older, his own name was present under Damian's, as if it had been erased during the long years of his slavery and newly added.

  • Bassett, Constitutional Beginnings of North Carolina (Baltimore, 1894); The Regulators of North Carolina (Washington, 1894); and Slavery in the State of North Carolina (Baltimore, 1899), are all trustworthy.

  • Owing to the prohibition of slavery the vast majority of the early immigrants to Ohio came from the North, but, until the Mexican War forced the slavery question into the foreground, the Democrats usually controlled the state, because the principles of that party were more in harmony with frontier ideas of equality.

  • Slaves were often adopted and if they proved unfilial were reduced to slavery again.

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Words near slavery in the Dictionary