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Synonyms for slave

Grammar : Noun, verb
Spell : sleyv
Phonetic Transcription : sleɪv

Top 10 synonyms for slave
Other synonyms for the word slave

Définition of slave

Origin :
  • late 13c., "person who is the chattel or property of another," from Old French esclave (13c.), from Medieval Latin Sclavus "slave" (source also of Italian schiavo, French esclave, Spanish esclavo), originally "Slav" (see Slav); so used in this secondary sense because of the many Slavs sold into slavery by conquering peoples.
  • This sense development arose in the consequence of the wars waged by Otto the Great and his successors against the Slavs, a great number of whom they took captive and sold into slavery. [Klein]
  • Meaning "one who has lost the power of resistance to some habit or vice" is from 1550s. Applied to devices from 1904, especially those which are controlled by others (cf. slave jib in sailing, similarly of locomotives, flash bulbs, amplifiers). Slave-driver is attested from 1807; extended sense of "cruel or exacting task-master" is by 1854. Slate state in U.S. history is from 1812. Slave-trade is attested from 1734.
  • Old English Wealh "Briton" also began to be used in the sense of "serf, slave" c.850; and Sanskrit dasa-, which can mean "slave," apparently is connected to dasyu- "pre-Aryan inhabitant of India." More common Old English words for slave were þeow (related to þeowian "to serve") and þræl (see thrall). The Slavic words for "slave" (Russian rab, Serbo-Croatian rob, Old Church Slavonic rabu) are from Old Slavic *orbu, from the PIE root *orbh- (also source of orphan), the ground sense of which seems to be "thing that changes allegiance" (in the case of the slave, from himself to his master). The Slavic word is also the source of robot.
  • noun person who serves, often under duress
  • verb work very hard
Example sentences :
  • The spirit and the gifts of freedom ill assort with the condition of a slave.
  • Extract from : « Philothea » by Lydia Maria Child
  • No one of our kindred must enter the family of Pericles as a slave.
  • Extract from : « Philothea » by Lydia Maria Child
  • The Athenian slave laws were much more mild than modern codes.
  • Extract from : « Philothea » by Lydia Maria Child
  • A little of it is all right—but don't be a slave to your passions.
  • Extract from : « The Spenders » by Harry Leon Wilson
  • Making him her slave, she kept him at the very height of bliss.
  • Extract from : « Malbone » by Thomas Wentworth Higginson
  • Had she been his slave, he might have become a very unyielding or a very heedless despot.
  • Extract from : « Malbone » by Thomas Wentworth Higginson
  • To be the slave of a husband was the worst of all slavery except self-slavery!
  • Extract from : « Weighed and Wanting » by George MacDonald
  • I'm forty-four, independent, free, a slave to no man nor monkey.
  • Extract from : « Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 7, May 14, 1870 » by Various
  • At least, to live a slave to one's fears is next worst to living a slave to one's likings.
  • Extract from : « Weighed and Wanting » by George MacDonald
  • No one with the tamed soul and broken spirit of a slave can be free.
  • Extract from : « A Treatise on Parents and Children » by George Bernard Shaw

Antonyms for slave

Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019