forced labor

noun

1
: very hard physical work that someone is forced to do
The prisoners endured years of forced labor.
2
: a group of people who are made to work very hard for no money
also : a system that allows this
The railroad was built with/by forced labor.

Examples of forced labor in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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Church Pastor David Taylor, 53, is charged in federal court in Detroit with human trafficking conspiracy, forced labor and money laundering and is being held without bond, court records show. Paul Egan, USA Today, 1 Jan. 2026 Haotian is just one part of the wider tech ecosystem that has emerged around Southeast Asia’s booming cybercrime industry and forced labor scam compounds. Matt Burgess, Wired News, 18 Dec. 2025 Reporting from the Outlaw Ocean Project found that Sysco's Chinese seafood suppliers used North Korean forced labor. Jaclyn Diaz, NPR, 16 Dec. 2025 Courtesy Hinda Koza-Culp Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered approximately 6 million Jews across Europe — about two-thirds of the continent’s Jewish population — through mass shootings, forced labor, starvation and extermination camps such as Auschwitz. Jesse Kirsch, NBC news, 4 Nov. 2025 See All Example Sentences for forced labor

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Cite this Entry

“Forced labor.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/forced%20labor. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.

Legal Definition

forced labor

noun
: the act of providing or obtaining the labor of a person by use of or threat of force, physical restraint, serious harm (as physical, psychological, financial, or reputational), or abuse of legal process
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