slavery

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The practice of owning people as property and forcing them to work.

   Like treating a person as if they were a tool that someone owns.

   Slavery was finally abolished in that country after years of protest.

   Whole families were bought and sold under slavery.

   Similarservitude, bondage

   Oppositefreedom, liberty, emancipation

   Note
2. 2
   noununcountable

   The state of being a slave, owned and controlled by someone else.

   Like being trapped with no right to choose anything for yourself.

   He endured years of slavery before escaping to freedom.

   Her grandparents had lived in slavery on a cotton farm.

   Similarservitude, bondage, captivity, subjugation

   Oppositefreedom, liberty, emancipation

   Note
3. 3
   noununcountable

   Hard work that people are forced to do against their will.

   Like being made to work for nothing, with no way to say no.

   The men were kept in slavery, unpaid and unable to leave.

   The charity fights against modern slavery around the world.

   Similarservitude, bondage

   Oppositefreedom

4. 4
   nounfigurativelyuncountable

   A state where something like greed or drugs controls you completely.

   Like being chained to something you cannot stop wanting.

   His slavery to gambling cost him everything he owned.

   She broke free from her slavery to alcohol after years of struggle.

   Similarbondage, servitude, subjection, thrall

   Oppositefreedom, liberation

   Note
5. 5
   adjective

   Covered with drool that has dribbled from the mouth.

   The giant snow bear, the wolf with slavery jaws or the claws of the silent great cats were all a part. Creatures of man's oldest nightmares were the other side of that face.

   2014, Lisa Williamson, Echoes of Elder Times CollectionHere, slavery means covered in drool dripping from the mouth.

   Note

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