slave
Pluralslaves
Pluralslaves
- 1A person held as the property of another or held by force, whose labor, body, and life are under the control of the owner or captor, including someone forced into sexual exploitation.
The ship carried hundreds of slaves across the Atlantic to be sold at auction.
Frederick Douglass escaped from life as a slave in Maryland and became a leading abolitionist.
UsageMany historians and writers now prefer enslaved person or enslaved people, which stress what was done to them.
Oppositemaster, owner, freeman
Note
The word carries a people's name inside it. Middle English sclave came through Old French from Medieval Latin sclavus, and behind that stands Late Latin Sclavus, "Slav," itself from Byzantine Greek Sklábos. The traditional explanation is that so many Slavs were forced into servitude in the Middle Ages that their name became the word for the condition. The figurative uses of slave all borrow their weight from this one.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- The word derives through Middle English sclave, Old French and Medieval Latin sclavus from Late Latin Sclavus, meaning 'Slav'. en.wiktionary.org
- Late Latin Sclavus derives from Byzantine Greek Sklábos. en.wiktionary.org
- The traditional explanation connects the semantic change from 'Slav' to 'slave' with the enslavement of Slavs during the Middle Ages. en.wiktionary.org
- 2A person who is unable to resist something and surrenders to or is dominated by it.
He had become a slave to ambition, sacrificing friendships and health for the next promotion.
Critics called the composer a slave to convention, unwilling to break a single rule of form.
UsageUsed with to: a slave to fashion, a slave to habit.
Similarprisoner, victim, captive
Note
The construction that carries this meaning is slave to: a slave to passion, to strong drink, to ambition. Whatever follows to is the master, whether a habit, an appetite or a force. The phrase can be rueful, or it can celebrate surrender, as in Grace Jones's "Slave to the Rhythm" (1985).
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Grace Jones recorded 'Slave to the Rhythm', released in 1985. en.wikipedia.org
- 3A drudge; a person who labors, or is bound by contract to labor, with severely limited rights, such as an indentured servant.
Indentured servants crossed the ocean as virtual slaves, bound to their masters for seven years.
The intern complained that he was treated as a slave, fetching coffee and running errands without a word of thanks.
UsageOften softened with virtual or like: virtual slaves, treated like a slave.
Similardrudge, dogsbody, skivvy, serf, lackey
Oppositemaster
- 4To work very hard, with continuous and tiring effort.
We slaved for weeks to get the report finished before the deadline.
Why slave at a job you hate when you could find something better?
UsageOften used to complain about hard work, with over or at: slave over a hot stove, slave away at a job.
- 5A device controlled by or kept in step with another device, the master, such as a secondary flash unit; also, the second of two drives on an older shared cable, where the label is nominal.
On older PCs, you set jumpers to mark one drive as the master and the other as the slave.
A slave unit on the studio wall fires whenever it detects the burst from the master flash.
UsagePaired with master: a master drive and a slave drive. Many projects now say primary and secondary instead.
Note
Engineering's word for the subordinate half of a pair. The master leads and the slave follows, as with an off-camera flash or a DNS server in what Roderick W. Smith's LPIC-2 study guide (2011) calls a "slave configuration." On older paired hard drives the labels were nominal, since neither drive controlled the other.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Roderick W. Smith wrote the LPIC-2 study guide, first published in 2011. openlibrary.org
- Smith's guide uses the exact phrase "slave configuration" in discussing DNS. en.wiktionary.org
- 6An abject person; one who is wretched, degraded, or servile in spirit.
'Cowards and slaves!' the captain roared at the men who refused to leave the trench.
He bowed and scraped before the duke like the meanest slave at court.
UsageUsually an insult thrown at someone, as in cowards and slaves, rather than a plain description.
Similarwretch
Note
Here the word is a verdict on character rather than a legal status: a term of contempt for someone base or wretched. Shakespeare aims it straight at a person in Much Ado About Nothing: "Art thou the slave that with thy breath hast kill'd mine innocent child?"
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The figurative sense denotes an abject person, with wretch as a synonym. en.wiktionary.org
- William Shakespeare wrote Much Ado About Nothing. gutenberg.org
- The quotation is accurate; Leonato addresses it to Borachio in Act V, Scene I. gutenberg.org
Less common meanings
- 7To connect a device so that it operates under another device's control.
The engineers slaved the second motor to the first so both ran at the same speed.
The studio can slave both tape machines to a single timecode source.
UsageFollows the pattern slave one device to another: slaved the second motor to the first.
Note
The verb that grew from the master–slave device and shares its naming debate. Simon Millward's Fast Guide to Cubase SX describes "slaving one digital audio device to another unit using timecode," the everyday case in recording studios.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Master–slave terminology in technology is subject to a naming debate. en.wikipedia.org
- 8To take part in the slave trade, capturing people and enslaving them.
In the eighteenth century, the company's ships were slaving off the West African coast, carrying captives to plantations overseas.
Barbary corsairs continued to slave across the Mediterranean until the early nineteenth century.
Note
Much of this verb's work is done by its -ing form. Slaving can name the trade itself ("nothing but slaving"), or it can describe the people who carried it on ("the slaving Africans"). An older passive survives in John Marston's The Wonder of Women (1606): "Wilt thou be slaved?" meaning "enslaved."
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- The quotation "nothing but slaving" refers to slave trading. en.wiktionary.org
- The quoted phrase describes Africans engaged in enslaving others. en.wiktionary.org
- John Marston wrote The Wonder of Women, first published in 1606. emed.folger.edu
- The play contains "Wilt thou be slaved?", meaning enslaved; Massinissa speaks the line to Sophonisba. gutenberg.org
- 9A submissive partner in a BDSM relationship who consensually serves and obeys one or more masters or mistresses, sexually or personally.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
Late Latin Sclavus ("Slav") gave Medieval Latin sclavus ("slave"), traditionally explained by how often Slavs were enslaved during the Middle Ages. The word passed through Old French esclave into Middle English sclave, the source of the modern English form. The Latin itself traces to Byzantine Greek Sklábos, though another theory connects sclavus instead with Ancient Greek skūleúō ("to strip or despoil a slain enemy").
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- Medieval Latin sclavus, meaning 'slave', derives from Late Latin Sclavus, meaning 'Slav'. en.wiktionary.org
- The traditional explanation connects the change in meaning with the enslavement of Slavs during the Middle Ages. en.wiktionary.org
- Middle English sclave was borrowed through Old French esclave. en.wiktionary.org
- Modern English slave descends from Middle English sclave. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin Sclavus derives from Byzantine Greek Sklábos. en.wiktionary.org
- An alternative hypothesis derives sclavus from Ancient Greek skūleúō, meaning 'to strip or despoil a slain enemy'. en.wiktionary.org