bondage
Americannoun
-
slavery or involuntary servitude; serfdom.
-
the state of being bound by or subjected to some external power or control.
- Synonyms:
- imprisonment, confinement, captivity, thralldom
-
the state or practice of being physically restrained, as by being tied up, chained, or put in handcuffs, for sexual gratification.
-
Early English Law. personal subjection to the control of a superior; villeinage.
noun
-
slavery or serfdom; servitude
-
Also called: villeinage. (in medieval Europe) the condition and status of unfree peasants who provided labour and other services for their lord in return for holdings of land
-
a sexual practice in which one partner is physically bound
Related Words
See slavery.
Etymology
Origin of bondage
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Anglo-Latin bondagium. See bond 2, -age
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“This festival is intended to lift up our ancestors that came to this country in bondage, terrorized, brutalized,” Ludlow said outside City Hall on Wednesday.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 5, 2026
The history of slavery under Islam involved multiple forms of bondage that stretched across continents and generations.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 10, 2025
During the same oral argument, you had Neil Gorsuch insisting that the book "Pride Puppy" involved a sex worker who was into bondage.
From Salon • May 16, 2025
“Have they read the harrowing history of their ancestors’ bondage in Egypt to no purpose?” one writer in a Jewish periodical asked of pro-slavery Jews.
From Slate • Apr. 10, 2025
He had been attuned to a shared tension, a communal apprehension beyond the routine facts of their bondage.
From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
