Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A fine levied on a Russian peasant for absence from his village.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Russia, Russia A rent.
  • noun Russia A poll tax paid by peasants absent from their lord's estate.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A rent.
  • noun In Russia, a poll tax paid by peasants absent from their lord's estate.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Russian оброк ("rent, tribute")

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Examples

  • The first comprised those working under the old, or _corvée_, system, -- giving, generally, three days in the week to the tillage of the owner's domain; the second comprised those working under the new, or _obrok_, system, -- receiving

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, No. 61, November, 1862 Various

  • As to being put on obrok, the serfs did not much object, though they preferred to remain as they were; but his proposal to break up the Mir astonished and bewildered them.

    Russia Donald Mackenzie Wallace 1880

  • Sometimes the proprietor did not farm at all on his own account, in which case he put all the serfs "on obrok," and generally gave to the Commune in usufruct the whole of the arable land and pasturage.

    Russia Donald Mackenzie Wallace 1880

  • "The proprietor," it is said in the Laws (Vol. IX, p. 1045, ed.an. 1857), "may impose on his serfs every kind of labour, may take from them money dues (obrok) and demand from them personal service, with this one restriction, that they should not be thereby ruined, and that the number of days fixed by law should be left to them for their own work."

    Russia Donald Mackenzie Wallace 1880

  • The peasants came to understand that what he wished was to break up the Mir, or rural Commune, and to put them all on obrok -- that is to say, make them pay a yearly sum instead of giving him a certain amount of agricultural labour.

    Russia Donald Mackenzie Wallace 1880

  • ‘I have just received permission to go and earn my obrok,’ is your fluent explanation.

    Dead Souls 1842

  • Israelites in Courland should enjoy the right of keeping, either by rent or obrok, farms, inns, or baiting stables; but your Excellency will please to remember that this privilege was soon recalled.

    Diaries of Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore, Volume I Comprising Their Life and Work as Recorded in Their Diaries From 1812 to 1883 Moses Montefiore 1834

  • _obrok_, for the exercise of their art, as much as the lowest handicraftsman.

    The slave trade, domestic and foreign Why It Exists, and How It May Be Extinguished 1836

  • "on obrok," -- that is to say, he allowed them to go and work where they pleased on condition of paying him a fixed yearly sum.

    Russia Donald Mackenzie Wallace 1880

  • "Having serfs, gave them permission to engage in manufactures, and to seek for work for themselves where they liked, on the mere condition of paying their lord a personal tax, (_obrok_).

    The slave trade, domestic and foreign Why It Exists, and How It May Be Extinguished 1836

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