Search Result for "slavery": 
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (3)

1. the state of being under the control of another person;
[syn: bondage, slavery, thrall, thralldom, thraldom]

2. the practice of owning slaves;
[syn: slavery, slaveholding]

3. work done under harsh conditions for little or no pay;


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Slavery \Slav"er*y\, n.; pl. Slaveries. [See 2d Slave.] 1. The condition of a slave; the state of entire subjection of one person to the will of another. [1913 Webster] Disguise thyself as thou wilt, still, slavery, said I, still thou art a bitter draught! --Sterne. [1913 Webster] I wish, from my soul, that the legislature of this state [Virginia] could see the policy of a gradual abolition of slavery. It might prevent much future mischief. --Washington. [1913 Webster] 2. A condition of subjection or submission characterized by lack of freedom of action or of will. [1913 Webster] The vulgar slaveries rich men submit to. --C. Lever. [1913 Webster] There is a slavery that no legislation can abolish, -- the slavery of caste. --G. W. Cable. [1913 Webster] 3. The holding of slaves. [1913 Webster] Syn: Bondage; servitude; inthrallment; enslavement; captivity; bond service; vassalage. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

slavery n 1: the state of being under the control of another person [syn: bondage, slavery, thrall, thralldom, thraldom] 2: the practice of owning slaves [syn: slavery, slaveholding] 3: work done under harsh conditions for little or no pay
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

77 Moby Thesaurus words for "slavery": abjectness, absolutism, attendance, baseness, bond service, bondage, captivity, control, debt slavery, deprivation of freedom, dirty work, disenfranchisement, disfranchisement, domination, donkeywork, drudge, drudgery, employ, employment, enslavement, enthrallment, fag, fatigue, feudalism, feudality, grind, handiwork, handwork, hard labor, helotism, helotry, indentureship, industry, labor, lick, lick of work, manual labor, meanness, menialness, ministration, ministry, moil, peonage, plugging, rat race, restraint, scut work, serfdom, serfhood, servility, servitium, servitorship, servitude, slavishness, spadework, strain, stroke, stroke of work, subjection, subjugation, submissiveness, subservience, subserviency, sweat, task, tendance, thrall, thralldom, tiresome work, toil, travail, treadmill, tyranny, vassalage, villenage, work, yoke
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

SLAVERY. The state or condition of a slave. 2. Slavery exists in most of the southern states. In Pennsylvania, by the act of March, 1780, for the gradual abolition of slavery, it has been almost entirely removed in Massachusetts it was held, soon after the Revolution, that slavery had been abolished by their constitution; 4 Mass. 128; in Connecticut, slavery has been totally extinguished by legislative provisions; Reeve's Dom. Bel. 340; the states north of Delaware, Maryland and the river Ohio, may be considered as free States, where slavery is not tolerated. Vide Stroud on Slavery; 2 Kent, Com. 201; Rutherf. Inst. 238.