as in serfdom
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Recent Examples of peonage
The Black community’s relationship with growing food is colored by exploitive practices, from slavery to sharecropping, tenant farming and peonage, or debt servitude.
—
Lyndsay C. Green, Detroit Free Press, 27 Nov. 2024
Further, this much control over the autonomy of an athlete’s rights to their own NIL rights combined with a financial obligation could also trigger scrutiny under the 13th Amendment, which, in addition to abolishing slavery, placed prohibitions on peonage (i.e., working against your will).
—Joe Sabin, Forbes, 10 Oct. 2024
The Wilberforce Act covers physical abuse and peonage, which is forced labor.
—Judy L. Thomas, Kansas City Star, 6 June 2024
Convict leasing, also called peonage, juxtaposed the infrastructure of the Old English debtor’s prison with the barbarism of chattel slavery to bolster American capitalism.
—Phillip Vance Smith, JSTOR Daily, 1 Feb. 2024
See All Example Sentences for peonage
Lyndsay C. Green, Detroit Free Press, 27 Nov. 2024
Further, this much control over the autonomy of an athlete’s rights to their own NIL rights combined with a financial obligation could also trigger scrutiny under the 13th Amendment, which, in addition to abolishing slavery, placed prohibitions on peonage (i.e., working against your will).
—Joe Sabin, Forbes, 10 Oct. 2024
The Wilberforce Act covers physical abuse and peonage, which is forced labor.
—Judy L. Thomas, Kansas City Star, 6 June 2024
Convict leasing, also called peonage, juxtaposed the infrastructure of the Old English debtor’s prison with the barbarism of chattel slavery to bolster American capitalism.
—Phillip Vance Smith, JSTOR Daily, 1 Feb. 2024
See All Example Sentences for peonage
Recent Examples of Synonyms for peonage
Noun
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Kollwitz’ life also coincided with the final days of aristocratic feudalism and serfdom in Germany and the nation’s economic transition to Industrialism.—
Chadd Scott,
Forbes.com,
24 Apr. 2025
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The peasants’ goal was to overturn serfdom and create a fairer society grounded on the Christian Bible.—
Michael Bruening,
The Conversation,
25 Feb. 2025
Noun
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Together with the Civil War Amendments, outlawing slavery and involuntary servitude and ensuring all citizens equal protection of the laws and due process of law, the Bill of Rights stands as a constant guardian of individual liberty.—
Liz Tracey,
JSTOR Daily,
25 Aug. 2025
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But perhaps the consequence was that some deeper servitude had been inflicted elsewhere.—
Rachel Cusk,
New Yorker,
24 Aug. 2025
Noun
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Florida’s Surgeon General, Joseph Ladapo, announced on Wednesday that the state would end all vaccine mandates, likening them to slavery.—
Connor Greene,
Time,
3 Sep. 2025
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What was meant to be a reflective, thought-provoking discussion on slavery and human resilience was flattened into copy-paste commentary.—
Ashanty Rosario,
The Atlantic,
3 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Since the end of enslavement, keeping up appearances had been of particular political import for Black women.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
21 Aug. 2025
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As for the enslavement of my African ancestors, who literally built the economic infrastructure of America with forced, free labor, from 1619 to 1865—246 years—this section of the American journey was reduced to mere paragraphs.—
Gordon G. Chang,
MSNBC Newsweek,
21 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
Senior staff taught various classes on clitoral stroking, oral sex, bondage, and more.—
Thessaly La Force,
New Yorker,
29 Aug. 2025
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Adding all this up, odds seemed good that my family lacked a connection to the horrors of human bondage.—
Krista Kafer,
Denver Post,
31 July 2025
Noun
-
It’s finished with barrel cuffs and a seamed, pleated back yoke.—
Jamie Allison Sanders,
People.com,
14 Aug. 2025
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In self-drive mode, the yoke wheel folds into the dashboard, and the center screen slides over to cover it; the pedals retract into the footwell.—
Brad Templeton,
Forbes.com,
13 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Peonage.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/peonage. Accessed 5 Sep. 2025.
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