slave

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (2)  · 
“
As soon as a slave was allowed to hire his time, the door of freedom began to open to him.

View all »
Definitions (28)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (7)

  1. noun One bound in servitude as the property of a person or household.
  2. noun One who is abjectly subservient to a specified person or influence: "I was still the slave of education and prejudice” (Edward Gibbon).
  3. noun One who works extremely hard.
4 more from this dictionary »

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (13)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (4)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (4)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • "It essentially said that even though a slave was a person, he or she was an" inferior "person, and therefore the rights of the slaveowner superseded that of the slave."
  • The slave owner most likely views the indentured servant as a kind of threat-preferring the idea that the slave is their property-while the indentured servant is bound only by a contract - "how will I ever discipline my servant if I can't starve him because I am bound by contact to feed him three meals a day". —  Extra! Extra!
  • But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for the slave is his money. or —  TimesArgus.com: Sports
  • I am assuming that the name found after that of the slave is the party to whom the slave is being rented, with the amount of the rent being the last item on the line. —  GenealogyBlog
  • He spent two years in Japanese slave-labor camps, and then was one of only 82 men who survived when the prison boat he was sharing with 750 other U.S.
More examples »
 

Tags

slave hasn't been tagged yet.

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 324 times.

1 person has marked this word as a favorite.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

servant ·  prisoner ·  child ·  animal ·  warrior ·  peasant ·  wife ·  master ·  native ·  worker ·  one ·  race

Used in the same contextWord Family

slave:   slaves ·  Slave
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English sclave, from Old French esclave, from Medieval Latin sclāvus, from Sclāvus, Slav (from the widespread enslavement of captured Slavs in the early Middle Ages); see Slav.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Not found in Middle English; from Old French esclave, esclau, French esclave = Pr, esclau, masculine, esclava, feminine, = Spanish esclavo = Portuguese escravo = Italian schiavo, stiavo (from Middle Latin sclavus, slavus) = Middle Dutch slave, slaef (also slavven), Dutch slaaf = Swedish slaf = Danish slave, from late Middle High German sklave, slave, German sklave, a slave, properly one taken in war, orig. one of the Slavs or Slavonians taken in war, the word being identical with Middle High German G. Sklave, Slave (Middle Latin Sclavus, Slavus, Middle Greek Σκλάβος, Σθλάβος), a Slav, Slavonian: see Slav. For similar notions, cf. AS, wealh, foreigner, Celt, slave: see Welsh.
  2. = Middle Dutch, Dutch slaven = Middle Low German slaven = Swedish slafva; from the noun.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/sleɪv/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about twice a day.

Recently looked up

tensions · insouciant · dick · analytic · athirt

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

cuddlefish · cuttlefish · mamaroneck · maladministration · antidisestablishmentarianism