debt bondage

noun

: the practice of coercing people to work usually for many years until a debt is paid

Debt bondage was born in feudal economies and was once the predominant mode of labor relations in agricultural settings around the world, from medieval Europe, to Mughal India, to Tokugawa Japan, to the peonage system of the American South after the Civil War.

—Siddharth Kara

These days, many traffickers start out by giving money to their victims and, little by little, ensnare them by indebtedness—the classic human-trafficking practice of debt bondage.

—Lydia Cacho

also : the state of being coerced in this way

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.

called also debt slavery

Examples of debt bondage in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Any shortfall is carried forward, trapping workers in a cycle of debt bondage, the report said. —Jay Ganglani, NBC news, 25 Mar. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1876, in the meaning defined above