slave

Meaning

Noun

1. A person who is held in servitude as the property of another person, and whose labor (and often also whose body and life) is subject to the owner's volition and control.
2. (figuratively) A drudge; one who labors or is obliged (e.g. by prior contract) to labor like a slave with limited rights, e.g. an indentured servant.
3. (figuratively) An abject person.
4. (figuratively) One who has no power of resistance to something, one who surrenders to or is under the domination of something.
5. A submissive partner in a BDSM relationship who consensually submits to, sexually or personally, serving one or more masters or mistresses.
6. A sex slave, a person who is forced against their will to perform, for another person or group, sexual acts on a regular or continuing basis.
7. A device (such as a secondary flash or hard drive) that is subject to the control of another (a master).

Verb

1. To work as a slaver, to enslave people.
2. (intransitive) To work hard.
3. (transitive) To place a device under the control of another.

Opposite of

master, primary

Synonyms

servant

serf

bondman

female slave

bondwoman

drudge

thrall

bondservant

worker

menial

toil

captive

vassal

male slave

devotee

bondmaid

lackey

dependent

endentured

woman slave

helot

striver

buckle down

suffer

sweat

😓

knuckle down

labor

bondslave

break one’s back

dependant

errand boy

hard worker

servile

slavish

stooge

subordinate

I

tenant

thigh

toiler

trailing

tributary

Trojan

victim

villein

work hard

bond-servant

busy bee

domestic help

Helot

Translations

esclave

esclavo

Sklave

schiavo

escravo

slaaf

Sklavin

δούλος

servus

esclau

escrava

schiava

esclava

Pronounced as (IPA)

/sleɪv/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: sclave

In summary

Inherited from Middle English sclave, from Old French sclave, from Medieval Latin sclavus (“slave”), from Late Latin Sclavus (“Slav”), traditionally assumed to be because Slavs were often forced into slavery in the Middle Ages. The Latin word is from Byzantine Greek Σκλάβος (Sklábos); see that entry and Slav for more. Displaced native Old English þēow. Thrall and bondsman/bondswoman, however, remain common synonyms. Doublet of ciao and Slav.
An alternative hypothesis derives sclavus from Ancient Greek σκῡλεύω (skūleúō), σκῡλάω (skūláō, “to strip or despoil a slain enemy”).

Sentences

He became a missionary in Africa and fought the slave trade all his life .