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

In the Thar desert of Pakistan, generations of families are trapped in debt bondage, forced to work for years in brick kilns to repay loans from the kiln owners.

—Isaiah Reynolds et al.

b

: servitude or subjugation to a controlling person or force

How can one company control the world's seed supply? 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

• slavery
• thraldom

Examples of bondage in a Sentence

a population held in bondage

Recent Examples on the Web

The judge kept his half-brothers in bondage in Austin until Juneteenth in 1865. —Michael Barnes, Austin American Statesman, 2 July 2025

In the gap between law and emancipation, white landowners reaped profits, and Black families remained in bondage, unaware of the paper promises made in Washington. —Sughnen Yongo, Forbes.com, 19 June 2025

Black people in Texas learned of their liberation from physical bondage in June 1865, but the struggle for the full liberation of Black people had only just begun. —Brandon Pryor, Denver Post, 16 June 2025

One feature of American life apparently not worth getting angry about—or that, perhaps, anger would not improve—was the institution of human bondage. —Matthew Karp, Harpers Magazine, 29 Apr. 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