slave labor

noun

variants or chiefly British slave labour

1

: work that is done by enslaved people or by people who are treated as though they are enslaved

prisoners being forced to do slave labor

a slave labor camp

2

: enslaved people doing work

The pyramids were built by slave labor.

slave laborer noun

or chiefly British slave labourer

plural slave laborers

… The Statue of Freedom—the figure of a Native American woman warrior that stands on the dome—was cast in bronze by slave laborers in 1863 and hoisted up there.

—Jack E. White

Examples of slave labor in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

According to the filings, two DOGE employees sourced short summaries of the projects they had been instructed to evaluate—which included a documentary about slave labor during the Holocaust and a documentary about the Colfax Massacre—from the internet. —News Desk, Artforum, 8 Mar. 2026

The Chagos were used to farm coconuts, also by slave labor. —David Frum, The Atlantic, 2 Mar. 2026

Concealing pregnancies while being used as slave labor Families were ripped apart upon arrival at Auschwitz. —Lesley Stahl, CBS News, 16 Feb. 2026

Relatedly, the green cane stalks signified an early Caribbean sugar industry run on slave labor. —Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 9 Feb. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1802, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for slave labor

• belabor
• nonlabor
• neighbor
• neighbour
• saber
• sabre
• tabor