bondage

[ bon-dij ]

noun

1. slavery or involuntary servitude; serfdom.

   Synonyms: prison, restraint, captivity

2. the state of being bound by or subjected to some external power or control.

   Synonyms: imprisonment, confinement, captivity, thralldom

3. the state or practice of being physically restrained, as by being tied up, chained, or put in handcuffs, for sexual gratification.
4. Early English Law. personal subjection to the control of a superior; villeinage.

bondage

/ ˈbɒndɪdʒ /

noun

1. slavery or serfdom; servitude
2. Also calledvilleinage (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
3. a sexual practice in which one partner is physically bound

Word History and Origins

Origin of bondage¹

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Anglo-Latin bondagium. See bond ², -age

Synonym Study

See slavery.

Example Sentences

Such complexity is the essence of this incisive but unimaginatively adapted story, which subverts the overly simplistic binaries of bondage and liberty, oppressed and oppressor, abolitionist and enslaver.

From Time

It started with a much older law, one that shaped a more complex legacy of human bondage.

From Washington Post

Republicans, based in the South, shot back that their rivals were nothing less than monarchists — stifling free speech, repressing the people and endangering slavery by recognizing the Haitian rebels who had thrown off their bondage.

From Washington Post

Examples include freedom from slavery, bondage, and oppression.

From Outside Online

Washington kept him and the other enslaved members of the president’s house in bondage by circumventing the Pennsylvania abolition law that allowed them to petition for freedom if they remained in the state more than six months.

From Washington Post

Appearances mostly occurred in crime novels like “Bondage and boyflesh” by Newt Jennings.

From The Daily Beast

But the craziest thing I did was the stuff I did for Device Bondage, which is actually super fun.

From The Daily Beast

Porn star Holly Sampson, whose work includes Descent Into Bondage and Diary of a Horny Housewife.

From The Daily Beast

The day will come, however, when people will think of him as the man who wrote Of Human Bondage.

From Project Gutenberg

Freedom gotten by the Sword is an 140 established Bondage to some part or other of the Creation.

From Project Gutenberg

Because it brings in Kingly Bondage again, and is the occasion of all quarrels and oppressions.

From Project Gutenberg

No man shall either give hire or take hire for his work; for this brings in Kingly Bondage.

From Project Gutenberg

Bondage, serfdom, even slavery, seemed to be sanctioned by the Bible.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• enslavement
• serfdom
• servitude
• subjugation
• yoke