# thrall

Pronunciation: say "THRAWL" US /θɹɔl/, UK /θɹɔːl/

## Noun

1. The state of being held under the control or power of another.
   - Simple: Being under someone else's power or control.
   - _For a decade the country was in thrall to a single ruling family._
   - _The cult leader held his followers in thrall with promises of salvation._
2. A slave, or anyone who is under the control of another.
   - Simple: A slave, or a person who must obey someone else.
   - _The farm was worked by thralls captured in raids across the sea._
   - _By forty he was a thrall to gambling, unable to drive past a casino without stopping._

## Verb

3. To reduce someone to slavery or make them a thrall.
   - Simple: To make a person a slave.
   - _The raiders thralled every villager they could catch and shipped them north._
   - _A tyrant who would thrall his own people deserves no one's loyalty._

## Adjective

4. Held in bondage or captivity, under another's power. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: Kept as a prisoner or slave, not free.
   - _Rather than live thrall to a foreign king, they fled into the mountains._
   - _The captives were held thrall in the tower for seven years._

## Other meanings

- (noun) A shelf; a stand for barrels, etc.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–2, 4** — From Middle English thral, from Old English þrǣl, “thrall, slave, servant,” from Old Norse þræll, “slave,” from Proto-Germanic *þrahilaz, “runner, servant,” from Proto-Indo-European *trāgʰ-, “to pull, run.” It is probably related to Old English þrǣġan, “to run.”
**Meaning 3** — From Middle English thrallen, from the noun thrall. Compare Old Norse þræla.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/thrall (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).