Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A person who held land from a feudal lord and received protection in return for homage and allegiance.
  • noun A bondman; a slave.
  • noun A subordinate or dependent.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To subject to vassalage; enslave; treat as a vassal.
  • To command; rise over or above; dominate.
  • noun A feudatory tenant; one holding lands by the obligation to render military service or its equivalent to his superior, especially in contradistinction to rear vassal and vavasor; a vassal of the first order—that is, one holding directly from the king. Compare great vassal, below.
  • noun A subject; a dependent; a retainer; a servant; one who attends on or does the will of another.
  • noun A bondman; a slave.
  • noun A low wretch.
  • Servile; subservient.

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

  • transitive verb obsolete To treat as a vassal; to subject to control; to enslave.
  • adjective Resembling a vassal; slavish; servile.
  • noun (Feud. Law) The grantee of a fief, feud, or fee; one who holds land of a superior, and who vows fidelity and homage to him; a feudatory; a feudal tenant.
  • noun A subject; a dependent; a servant; a bondman; a slave.
  • noun the vassal of a vassal; an arriere vassal.

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

  • noun historical The grantee of a fief, feud, or fee; one who keeps land of a superior, and who vows fidelity and homage to him, normally a lord of a manor; a feudatory; a feudal tenant.
  • noun A subject; a dependant; a servant; a slave.
  • adjective Resembling a vassal; slavish; servile.
  • verb transitive To treat as a vassal or to reduce to the position of a vassal; to subject to control; to enslave.
  • verb transitive To subordinate to someone or something.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a person holding a fief; a person who owes allegiance and service to a feudal lord

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin *vassallus, from *vassus, of Celtic origin; see upo in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Old French vassal, from Medieval Latin vassallus ("manservant, domestic, retainer"), from vassus ("servant"), from Gaulish uassos ("young man, squire")

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Examples

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  • "Obama couldn’t and wouldn’t criticize Nazi Germany because its brutal program of territorial reconquest, expansion, and confrontation of major rivals closely resembles today’s U.S. rulers’ own agenda. They are hell-bent on retaking the Mid-East and its oil, making U.S. protectorates of former Soviet vassals in Eastern Europe, and militarily besting potential super-powers like China, Russia, India, and the European Union."

    - challenge, 'Coin Toss Between Obama, McCain Yields: WAR, WAR, WAR', progressivelabor.890m.com, 6 August 2008.

    October 30, 2008