SLAVERY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Slavery

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/slˈeɪvəri/ Listen

noun

Slavery n. (pl. slaveries)

The condition of a slave; the state of entire subjection of one person to the will of another. "Disguise thyself as thou wilt, still, slavery, said I, still thou art a bitter draught!" "I wish, from my soul, that the legislature of this state (Virginia) could see the policy of a gradual abolition of slavery. It might prevent much future mischief."

A condition of subjection or submission characterized by lack of freedom of action or of will. "The vulgar slaveries rich men submit to." "There is a slavery that no legislation can abolish, the slavery of caste."

The holding of slaves.

Synonyms: Bondage; servitude; inthrallment; enslavement; captivity; bond service; vassalage.

See images of 'Slavery'

Etymology of 'Slavery'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"Slavery" Quotes from Famous Books

... point of vantage in Salamis, women, old men, children, all who could not fight, looked out upon the sea, watching with heart-rending anxiety the signs of the approaching struggle. Death or slavery and untold misery would be their fate if numbers should prevail in the battle. In our days, in the hours before such a decisive struggle a people watches the newspapers, and waits for tidings of the fight in a turmoil of mingled hopes and fears. But whatever may be the ...

— Famous Sea Fights - From Salamis to Tsu-Shima • John Richard Hale

... eloquence of the great English advocate and parliamentary orator a family likeness to that of his renowned American kinsman; or to find in the fierceness of the champion of Queen Caroline against George IV., and of English anti-slavery reform and of English parliamentary reform against aristocratic and commercial selfishness, the same bitter and eager radicalism that burned in the blood of him who, on this side of the Atlantic, was, in popular oratory, the great ...

— Patrick Henry • Moses Coit Tyler

... in Provi-whah. Her own name was Yahn. No:—it was not a Te-hua name. It was Apache, for her mother was Apache—and the Te-hua men had caught her when they were hunting, and always her mother had told Yahn to stay close to the houses, for hunting enemies might bear her away into slavery—and Yahn was not certain but these men on ...

— The Flute of the Gods • Marah Ellis Ryan

... Vikinger only laid on man for man, but now any nation who invents the most murderous machine for shooting can mow down armies of men miles off. As for the stealing—what is half the trade of the world but a kind of civil picking of somebody's pocket—a 'doing' of some one. And slavery; bah! slaves enough in Britain while the pressgang can carry off any man it likes. But there—what's the good of such talk? I'm not going to be a Viking in a bad way, so you need not be afraid. It will all be for adventure, and ...

— Viking Boys • Jessie Margaret Edmondston Saxby

... birth control and of voluntary motherhood are futile. The powers of reaction cannot now prevent the feminine spirit from breaking its bonds. When the last fetter falls the evils that have resulted from the suppression of woman's will to freedom will pass. Child slavery, prostitution, feeblemindedness, physical deterioration, hunger, oppression and war will disappear ...

— Woman and the New Race • Margaret Sanger

More quotes...