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

In fact, Kamala Harris’ candidacy is great reminder of the need to see the roots and consequences of human bondage that existed across the Americas. —Ana Lucia Araujo / Made By History, TIME, 4 Nov. 2024

January 15, 2021: More screenshots start proliferating online — this time, screenshots from Hammer’s secondary Instagram account, including several photos and videos of women in bondage. —Lydia Wang, Vulture, 1 Nov. 2024

Critics said the pattern looked similar to the white hoods worn by members of the KKK, an American white supremacist terrorist group that emerged after the Civil War and legal slavery had ended, freeing millions of Black people held in bondage. —Kaitlyn Schwanemann, NBC News, 11 Oct. 2024

Mexican Americans in Texas helped Black people escape bondage through the Underground Railroad to Mexico via a series of clandestine paths and secret homes, historians say. —Russell Contreras, Axios, 1 Oct. 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