bondage

noun

bond·​age ˈbän-dij 

plural bondages

1

: a state of being bound usually by compulsion (as of law): such as

a

: slavery, serfdom

Historically, the two most prevalent types of legal bondage were serfdom and chattel slavery.

—Michael Bush

More than 150 years after enslaved Africans and their descendants were released from bondage through ratification of the 13th Amendment, the slavery exception continues to permit the exploitation of labor by incarcerated individuals.

—Aaron Morrison

In the Thar desert of Pakistan, generations of families are trapped in debt bondage, forced to work for years in brick kilns to repay loans from the kiln owners.

—Isaiah Reynolds et al.

b

: servitude or subjugation to a controlling person or force

How can one company control the world's seed supply? When one gigantic corporate entity is allowed to block farmers from planting a seed without compensating that monopoly, the farmers are held in bondage to uncontrolled price increases.

—John Boyd

Do you have the freedom of self-control or are you in bondage to your desires?

—David Brooks

2

: sadomasochistic sexual practices involving the physical restraint of one partner

Synonyms

• enslavement
• servility
• servitude
• slavery
• thrall
• thralldom
• thraldom
• yoke

Examples of bondage in a Sentence

a population held in bondage

Recent Examples on the Web

Most people in the free states opposed human bondage, in a general way, but the thin reed of public opinion was no match for the institutional strength of slavery in the South. —Matthew Karp, Harper's Magazine, 2 Dec. 2024

The divine right of kings, feudalism, human bondage. —Jill Lepore, The New Yorker, 4 Nov. 2024

Nostalgic descriptions of pre-Civil War Christmases on Southern plantations are just one of the ways Lost Cause proponents obscure the horrors of human bondage in Dixie, allowing politicians to tap into neo-Confederate rhetoric and policies to win the support of white Southern voters. —Robert E. May / Made By History, TIME, 19 Dec. 2024

As our protagonist makes his flight from bondage along the Mississippi River, dodging slavers, sailing alongside an unrecognizable Huck, indignities continue to accumulate, hardening James, until violent delights culminate in delightfully violent ends. —The Atlantic, 4 Dec. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, from Anglo-French, from bonde customary tenant, from Middle English

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

bondage

noun

bond·​age ˈbän-dij 

: the state of being an enslaved person or serf