plural enslavers
1
: someone or something that forces one or more people into or as if into slavery
The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes … Frederick Douglass
The opera's libretto depicts Columbus as hungry for gold and an enslaver of the Tainos … Bill Kaufman
… writings and textbooks and pamphlets—some 100 years old—calling tobacco foul, poisonous, an enslaver of the mind and soul. Matthew Ebner
2
: slaveholder
Six years after she was enslaved on Spanish Point, Prince's enslaver sold her again to another slaveholder … Christopher Michael Blakley
… the Fugitive Slave Act was a source of contention for communities in the North that were torn about whether to comply with returning former slaves to their enslavers. Bethany Bump

Examples of enslaver in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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Maria Negro was accused of setting fire to her enslaver’s property in 1681 — a crime often associated with slave resistance. Ed Gaskin, Boston Herald, 9 Mar. 2025 Both the Maryland Gazette and the Virginia Gazette facilitated the capture of enslaved people who had run away by publishing advertisements placed by their enslavers. Alexandra Cox, Smithsonian Magazine, 10 Mar. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1645, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of enslaver was in 1645

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Cite this Entry

“Enslaver.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enslaver. Accessed 25 Mar. 2025.

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