1
as in servant
a person who is considered the property of another person
many American slaves reached freedom in the North through the network known as the Underground Railroad
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in laborer
a person who does very hard or dull work
unappreciated office slaves who perform the necessary but tedious task of filing paperwork
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in to labor
to devote serious and sustained effort
slaving over a hot stove
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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.
Recent Examples of slave
Brendan Rascius, Miami Herald, 4 June 2025
Canadians are the people who really fought and helped escaped slaves, remember the Underground Railroad went to Canada.
—J.m. Banks, Kansas City Star, 3 June 2025
Ben Travers, IndieWire, 14 Feb. 2025
Charcoal portraits depict six of the enslaved Africans who were aboard the Amistad, the 19th-century slaving schooner that became the center of a landmark Supreme Court case.
—Kaila Philo, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for slave
Noun
One vessel was renamed the USS Robert Smalls after a former slave who aided the Union in the Civil War, and the other was restyled the USNS Marie Tharp in honor of a ground-breaking oceanographic cartographer, according to the New York Times.
—Brendan Rascius, Miami Herald, 4 June 2025
Canadians are the people who really fought and helped escaped slaves, remember the Underground Railroad went to Canada.
—J.m. Banks, Kansas City Star, 3 June 2025
Verb
For the Outies to live their lives without a second thought to that other person slaving away underground?
—Ben Travers, IndieWire, 14 Feb. 2025
Charcoal portraits depict six of the enslaved Africans who were aboard the Amistad, the 19th-century slaving schooner that became the center of a landmark Supreme Court case.
—Kaila Philo, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for slave
Recent Examples of Synonyms for slave
Noun
-
Only one of the assailants, a servant named Hugh Colne, was charged in the case and imprisoned at Newgate in 1342.—
Mindy Weisberger,
CNN Money,
13 June 2025
-
Inside, the mansion’s sprawling basement kitchen, once staffed by dozens of servants, cleverly doubles as the Russells’ New York kitchen.—
Abby Montanez,
Robb Report,
10 June 2025
Noun
-
Those responsible for homeland security should not be chasing laborers on farms and busboys in restaurants in order to meet quotas imposed by the White House.—
Thomas Wright,
The Atlantic,
19 June 2025
-
At the same time, industrial facilities lured laborers into factories and mills as fewer were needed to work the land.—
Riley Robinson,
Christian Science Monitor,
8 June 2025
Verb
-
But the last pieces are always the hardest, and the weird SALT dance has the potential to snarl things even more at the last minute — especially after Speaker Johnson labored to get some of the same pro-SALT members to codify spending cuts.—
Burgess Everett,
semafor.com,
13 June 2025
-
But build rather than buy has been the Apple ethos ever since Jobs and co-founder Steve Wozniak were laboring in their garage in the mid-1970s.—
Cynthia Littleton,
Variety,
11 June 2025
Noun
-
Kevin Bacon starred as the titular bondsman, with Jennifer Nettles, Damon Herriman, Beth Grant, Maxwell Jenkins, and Jolene Purdy also starring.—
Joe Otterson,
Variety,
17 May 2025
-
And that’s exactly what Hub gets when attempting to arrest two criminals who have escaped bail, but who end up catching the bondsman off-guard, shooting him with a shotgun blast (a bulletproof vest saves his life) and then ultimately slitting his throat with a knife.—
Demetrius Patterson,
HollywoodReporter,
9 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
The father of 12 built a successful business polishing floors, hiring several workers.—
Elena Becatoros,
Los Angeles Times,
14 June 2025
-
His widow came back in 1969, the year after his assassination, to lead a hospital workers strike.—
Samantha Balaban,
NPR,
14 June 2025
Verb
-
Just as a time traveler from the 1960s would struggle to navigate modern life without learning how to operate a phone, a talented professional in 2025 who hasn’t learned to work with AI tools is out of step with reality.—
Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic,
Forbes.com,
16 June 2025
-
O’Neal’s involvement in the FTX litigation generated headlines when process servers representing the investors struggled to track down the 7-foot-1, 325-pound very recognizable former NBA star.—
Michael McCann,
Sportico.com,
16 June 2025
Verb
-
Jared, a division of Signet Jewelers, is striving to increase its relevancy to today’s customers in other ways as well.—
David Moin,
Footwear News,
16 June 2025
-
For the striving artists, a steady job is not a compromise but a strategic advantage, a powerful catalyst for sustained creativity and personal well-being.—
Kice Akkawi,
Rolling Stone,
16 June 2025
Noun
-
In many jurisdictions, the appeal of collecting is further enhanced through tax advantage, with sales exempt from capital gains thanks to wine’s classification as a wasting chattel.—
Paul Caputo,
Forbes.com,
17 June 2025
-
There is no question, the enslaved workers at the Nottoway Plantation during the antebellum era were human chattel.—
Maurice Carlos Ruffin,
Time,
21 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Slave.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/slave. Accessed 27 Jun. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share