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
Michael BushMore 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
Aaron Morrison
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
John BoydDo you have the freedom of self-control or are you in bondage to your desires?—David Brooks
David Brooks2
: sadomasochistic sexual practices involving the physical restraint of one partner
Examples of bondage in a Sentence
a population held in bondage
Recent Examples on the Web
Women often totter along a delicate line between beauty and torture, femininity and the bondage of expectation.
—Jane Wooldridge, Miami Herald, 7 Dec. 2025
Opposition to slavery was both widespread and constant across west African territories, from the earliest days of Atlantic slavery, as with the São Tomé rebellion and Lourenio da Silva Mendonia’s vigorous appeal against human bondage to the Vatican, all the way through to the nineteenth century.
—Literary Hub, 5 Dec. 2025
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
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
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Jane Wooldridge, Miami Herald, 7 Dec. 2025
Opposition to slavery was both widespread and constant across west African territories, from the earliest days of Atlantic slavery, as with the São Tomé rebellion and Lourenio da Silva Mendonia’s vigorous appeal against human bondage to the Vatican, all the way through to the nineteenth century.
—Literary Hub, 5 Dec. 2025
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
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
See All Example Sentences for bondage
Cite this Entry
“Bondage.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bondage. Accessed 20 Dec. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
bondage
noun
bond·age
ˈbän-dij 
: the state of being an enslaved person or serf
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