slavery

noun

slav·​ery ˈslā-v(ə-)rē How to pronounce slavery (audio)
plural slaveries
1
a
: the practice or institution of holding people as chattel involuntarily and under threat of violence
In reality, though, African forms of slavery didn't compare with the racialized industrial variants that Western empires unleashed upon the world. … Here in the United States … the enslaved were relegated to subhuman status for generations.Julian Lucas
Slavery officially ended in New Jersey in 1804, but in practice some people remained slaves until 1865, when the ratification of the 13th Amendment formally abolished slavery in the United States.Suzanne Travers
see also chattel slavery
b
: the state of a person who is forced usually under threat of violence to labor for the profit of another
[Frederick] Douglass, born a slave in Maryland in 1818, escaped from slavery at the age of twenty and quickly emerged as a major orator and leader of the antislavery crusade.Manning Marable
The organization says it has helped 135 victims escape sex slavery over the past 10 years.Audrey McAvoy
c
: a situation or practice in which people are coerced to work under conditions that are exploitative
… the unit has freed more than 26,000 workers nationwide from debt slavery. Under the practice, common in the Amazon, poor laborers are lured to remote spots where they rack up debts to plantation owners who charge exorbitant prices for everything from food to transportation.Vivian Sequera
… a labor union for prisoners that aims "to end prison slavery," announced the start of a nationwide strike inside U.S. prisons. Wages for incarcerated workers are typically measured in cents per hour, and several states … use the labor of prisoners without paying them at all.Daniel A. Gross
see also wage slavery
2
: submission to a dominating influence
slavery to habit
… it will probably be left to the next administration to act hopefully in a bold and visionary manner to free us from our slavery to oil.Alon Ben-Meir

Examples of slavery in a Sentence

Frederick Douglass was central advocate for the abolition of slavery. My dad put up with the slavery of working in the coal mines every day of his adult life.
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
In Wide Sargasso Sea, Bertha is imagined as a girl originally named Antoinette, raised in Jamaica on a fallow sugar plantation after the abolition of British slavery. Ilana Masad, The Atlantic, 3 Jan. 2025 Between 1850 and 1860, it’s estimated that Harriet sheltered hundreds of people fleeing slavery. Olatunji Osho-Williams, Smithsonian Magazine, 3 Jan. 2025 The legislation also removes language authorizing slavery and involuntary servitude as possible criminal punishments. Kinsey Crowley, USA TODAY, 1 Jan. 2025 The film’s second half goes in for horror-movie shock effects when the ghost of a white nemesis haunts the Charles family — bringing back the terrors of slavery — and the talisman piano becomes an instrument of exorcism. Armond White, National Review, 27 Dec. 2024 See all Example Sentences for slavery 

Word History

First Known Use

1548, in the meaning defined at sense 1b

Time Traveler
The first known use of slavery was in 1548

Dictionary Entries Near slavery

Cite this Entry

“Slavery.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slavery. Accessed 15 Jan. 2025.

Kids Definition

slavery

noun
slav·​ery ˈslāv-(ə-)rē How to pronounce slavery (audio)
1
2
a
: the state of a person who is held in forced servitude
b
: the practice of slaveholding

More from Merriam-Webster on slavery

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