bondage

noun

bond·​age ˈbän-dij 

plural bondages

1

: a state of being bound usually by compulsion (as of law): such as

a

: slavery, serfdom

Historically, the two most prevalent types of legal bondage were serfdom and chattel slavery.

—Michael Bush

More than 150 years after enslaved Africans and their descendants were released from bondage through ratification of the 13th Amendment, the slavery exception continues to permit the exploitation of labor by incarcerated individuals.

—Aaron Morrison

see also debt bondage

b

: servitude or subjugation to a controlling person or force

When one gigantic corporate entity is allowed to block farmers from planting a seed without compensating that monopoly, the farmers are held in bondage to uncontrolled price increases.

—John Boyd

Do you have the freedom of self-control or are you in bondage to your desires?

—David Brooks

2

: sadomasochistic sexual practices involving the physical restraint of one partner

Synonyms of bondage

• slavery

Examples of bondage in a Sentence

a population held in bondage

Recent Examples on the Web

They were held in bondage, forced to labor long hours with no pay, provided inadequate food and shelter, and under threat of physical abuse or even death at the slightest provocation. —Big Think, 13 Nov. 2025

For enslaved people, the Revolution was a fierce campaign to stage the largest exodus out of bondage since biblical times. —Literary Hub, 7 Nov. 2025

Douglass’s former North Star co-editor, Martin Delany, who had been admitted to Harvard Medical School but was forced out after white students complained, responded to Dred Scott — and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 — by writing a novel whose hero escapes bondage and plots an overthrow of slavery. —Equal Justice Initiative, USA Today, 6 Nov. 2025

Rogers noted that the book argues that a central cause of the war was Anglo settlers’ determination to keep slaves in bondage after Mexico largely abolished it. —Preston Fore, Fortune, 25 Oct. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, from Anglo-French, from bonde customary tenant, from Middle English

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

bondage

noun

bond·​age ˈbän-dij 

: the state of being an enslaved person or serf