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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For them, freedom meant ending serfdom too.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
25 Sep. 2025
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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
Noun
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But the character’s state of servitude is largely hidden in clumsy blocking.—
Frank Rizzo,
Variety,
29 Sep. 2025
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Whether a cell in 1598 played a part in conceiving of the scrawny, hobbled hidalgo with a cardboard visor and a bent lance is arguable, but Cervantes’ far more traumatic enslavement from 1571 until 1576 must have formed his intimate comprehension of the difference between freedom and servitude.—
Ed Simon
September 22,
Literary Hub,
22 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Coven is one of the tighter narratives the series has mustered, with its true horror lying in the realities of slavery in the American South.—
James Mercadante,
Entertainment Weekly,
1 Oct. 2025
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While the issues roiling America today may be more nuanced than slavery, there are still stark contrasts—forces of democracy and authoritarianism that can pretty fairly be described as right and wrong.—
Miguel Sirgado,
Miami Herald,
30 Sep. 2025
Noun
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There was out-and-out enslavement, of Native Americans and Africans; there were onerous tribute demands and a labor corvée called the repartimiento.—
Greg Grandin
September 23,
Literary Hub,
23 Sep. 2025
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Since 2017, Rosales has turned that absence into a bold visual language—one that not only centers West African spirituality but also traces its survival through colonization, enslavement, and the transatlantic slave trade.—
Yola Robert,
Forbes.com,
19 Sep. 2025
Noun
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The American border agency said its probe identified abuse of vulnerability, abusive working and living conditions, debt bondage, withholding of wages, and excessive overtime.—
Wayne Chang,
CNN Money,
25 Sep. 2025
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Today is the 450th anniversary of Cervantes’ kidnapping and the beginning of his five-year bondage in Algiers.—
Ed Simon
September 22,
Literary Hub,
22 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Try the trend in this dark-wash style with slimming mesh panels, a curved back yoke, classic five-pocket styling, and petite sizes 0–16.—
Jamie Allison Sanders,
PEOPLE,
6 Oct. 2025
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This dress has a seven-button front, double chest patch pockets, and a seamed back yoke.—
Jamie Allison Sanders,
People.com,
29 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Peonage.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/peonage. Accessed 8 Oct. 2025.
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