indentured
Americanadjective
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bound by or occurring under a written contract or formal agreement, especially to work for another.
The five indentured electrical apprentices of the second-year class were sworn into the union on Thursday.
Born in Belfast in 1949, he studied art while serving an indentured apprenticeship at a shipyard.
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relating to, done by, or being an indentured servant.
Molly Welsh, an Englishwoman sentenced to indentured servitude in 17th-century Maryland, married an African slave named Bannaka.
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of indentured
Explanation
To be indentured is to be forced to work by some contract. It started out as a word for a contract between masters and apprentices. Now it describes anyone bound to work, like it or not, because of some deal. Use the adjective indentured to describe someone who's bound or attached in a legal sense. If you're an indentured plumber's apprentice, you have guaranteed that you'll do that job in a particular way, for a specific length of time. If you're indentured to your grandmother, you may have promised to feed her cat every day for a month. When the word is used in this casual way, it implies a sense of duty that's become a burden.
Vocabulary lists containing indentured
Blood on the River
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The Milagro Beanfield War
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Indentured servants from India brought the cannabis plant to Jamaica in the 19th century, and it gained popularity as a medicinal herb.
From Seattle Times • Jun. 2, 2023
Indentured servitude and migration rhythms also brought Chinese, Indian, Jewish and other West Indian Caribbean dwellers to the island.
From New York Times • Feb. 23, 2022
Indentured workers’ descendants have done least well where their ancestors could not own land, as in Fiji.
From Economist • Aug. 31, 2017
Indentured servitude was difficult, deadly work, and many indentured servants died before their terms were over.
From Slate • Sep. 29, 2015
The Indentured Servant Protection Agency also used it to monitor and record my daily activities, to ensure that my human rights were being observed.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
