Synonyms of slaves

slaves 1 of 2

noun

plural of slave

1

as in servants

a person who is considered the property of another person

many American slaves reached freedom in the North through the network known as the Underground Railroad

Synonyms & Similar Words

• servants
• bondmen
• chattels
• serfs
• thralls
• domestics
• helots
• bondwomen
• menials
• attendants
• lackeys
• indentured servants
• handmaidens
• bond servants
• odalisques
• drudges

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• freemen
• freedmen
• slaveholders
• slavers
• masters
• freedwomen
• enslavers
• slave drivers
• taskmasters

2

as in laborers

a person who does very hard or dull work

unappreciated office slaves who perform the necessary but tedious task of filing paperwork

Synonyms & Similar Words

• laborers
• workers
• peons
• toilers
• grubs
• foot soldiers
• grubbers
• pluggers
• drudges
• grunts
• drones
• dogsbodies
• serfs
• drudgers
• sloggers
• workhorses

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• shirkers
• idlers
• loafers
• slugs
• sluggards
• goldbricks
• lazybones
• slouches

slaves

2 of 2

verb

present tense third-person singular of slave

as in labors

to devote serious and sustained effort

slaving over a hot stove

Synonyms & Similar Words

• labors
• struggles
• strives
• works
• endeavors
• toils
• plows
• tugs
• drudges
• fags
• grubs
• tries
• sweats
• pegs (away)
• humps
• hustles
• digs (away)
• plugs
• bangs away
• strains
• travails
• beavers (away)
• sweats blood
• applies (oneself)
• plods
• slogs
• buckles (down)
• hammers (away)
• moils
• pitches in
• knuckles down
• attacks
• exercises
• grinds (out)
• drives
• essays
• exerts
• scratches
• digs in
• ekes out
• overworks
• overexerts
• wades
• trudges
• puts out
• scrabbles

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• eases (up)
• breaks
• slackens
• bums
• hangs (around or out)
• slacks (off)
• lets up
• lounges
• goldbricks
• chills
• loafs
• dallies
• dillydallies
• lazes
• hacks (around)
• shirks
• rests
• idles
• goofs (off)
• lolls
• plays
• footles
• reposes
• relaxes
• basks
• unwinds
• trifles
• fribbles
• hangs
• fools around
• monkeys (around)
• vegges out
• potters (around)
• hangs about
• doodles
• putters (around)
• messes around
• dabbles
• goofs (around)

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of slaves

Noun

Its citizens held slaves, some of whom were shackled for committing adultery. — Boris Kachka, The Atlantic, 4 Sep. 2026

New York Life Insurance Company, Aetna Life Insurance Company and American International Group, known as AIG, were some of the businesses that listed previously disclosed ties to slaves and slaveholders. — Stephen Hobbs, Sacbee.com, 28 Aug. 2026

The Christiana Riot, also known as the Christiana Resistance, occurred in Christiana, Pennsylvania, where free Black people and escaped slaves successfully resisted a federal marshal’s raid to capture four fugitive slaves. — USA Today, 25 Aug. 2026

Make the first right on the man who permitted the heads of rebelling slaves to be put on stakes and spread across the city in order to prevent the others from getting any ideas. — Terry Gross, NPR, 14 Aug. 2026

There were a lot of stories about the richer people that went away amid all the political problems, and the people working for them, the descendants of the slaves. — Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 13 Aug. 2026

Very few think that America was truly founded when the first slaves arrived in 1619 and that patriotic holidays are oppressive. — David Weigel, semafor.com, 12 Aug. 2026

Washington himself had hundreds of slaves at his home and plantation in Virginia. — Jacqui Palumbo, CNN Money, 11 Aug. 2026

The Greeks branded their slaves; the Romans tattooed their gladiators. — Jill Lepore, New Yorker, 10 Aug. 2026

Verb

Things are equally akilter in his family’s home, with his mother now sitting on the couch watching TV while his father slaves away in the kitchen. — Frank Scheck, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019