enslave
Americanverb (used with object)
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enslaves,
present (3rd person singular)
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enslaved,
past participle, past
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enslaving
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
enslavesimple
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enslavessimple
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have enslavedperfect
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has enslavedperfect
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am enslavingprogressive
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are enslavingprogressive
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is enslavingprogressive
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have been enslavingperfect progressive
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has been enslavingperfect progressive
Past
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enslavedsimple
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had enslavedperfect
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was enslavingprogressive
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were enslavingprogressive
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had been enslavingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of enslave
Explanation
To enslave someone is to force that person to work for no pay, to obey commands, and to lose his or her freedom. The ancient Greeks were known to enslave groups of people they defeated in military battles. It's less common today for one group of people to enslave another, but unfortunately it does still happen. You might also encounter enslave being used in a figurative way, to describe something that takes over a person's freedom to make choices in some way: "Being hooked on cigarettes just enslaves her — she tries to quit, but she can't." Enslave comes from the "make into" prefix, en-, and slave, "person who is the property of another."
Vocabulary lists containing enslave
Lost Boy, Lost Girl
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Across So Many Seas
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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.
See Examples For:
“Proper is a word forged by men who would seek to enslave us with it,” Lucretia counsels Ilithyia.
From Salon ● Dec. 20, 2025
Superfly is constructing a device to turn all animals into mutants and enslave the human race, and the heroes enter into a color explosion epic battle to stop him.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 22, 2023
They will be like, “OK, leave him alone. Don’t enslave him. He understands us.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2023
But last week Hinton quit Google so he could speak freely about his fears that A.I. systems would soon become smarter than us and gain the power to enslave or kill us.
From Slate ● May 9, 2023
Ignorance of the ABCs, Frederick Douglass would write after gaining his freedom, was part of “the white man’s power to enslave the black man.”
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
Later, it did duty as a lower level of Nibelheim, where Alberich enslaves his fellow Nibelungs as the first step in his quest for world domination.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 14, 2023
Speaking to supporters at the end of his Socialist Party's three-day congress in Valencia, Mr Sanchez said that the practice "enslaves" women.
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2021
Were we talking about a Terminator scenario, were a Skynettian matrix of superintelligent machines gains consciousness and either destroys or enslaves humanity in order to further its particular goals?
From Slate ● Feb. 28, 2017
“Man’s own deed becomes an alien power opposed to him, which enslaves him instead of being controlled by him,” as Marx put it.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 3, 2016
The austere monk leaves woman out, the other kind enslaves her: both are wrong, for man can never advance and leave woman behind.
From Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 7 Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Orators by Elbert Hubbard
In 1851, an escaped enslaved man named William Parker stood at the door of a Lancaster County farmhouse and barred access to four fugitive enslaved men he was protecting.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026
Among other things, Britain’s invasion brought freedom to thousands of enslaved people, and established Canada as an ultimate stop on the Underground Railroad.
From Salon ● Aug. 31, 2026
We are presented, for instance, with some of the many graffiti that were etched into the walls of backrooms and stairwells where enslaved people made their lives.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
The law was originally meant to grant citizenship to American-born, formerly enslaved people following the American Civil War.
From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026
Later, as an ambitious farmer, George Washington relied completely on enslaved labor to grow his crops, catch fish in the nearby Potomac River, clean his house, make his clothes, and put food on his table.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
The financing contributed to England's role in enslaving around three million African men, women and children, of whom an estimated half a million died during forced transportation, King's College London said.
From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026
But it was extremely hypocritical of the U.S. to condemn the Barbary states for enslaving a few hundred Americans given, you know, the extensive enslavement of hundreds of thousands of Africans on American soil.
From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2026
France abolished enslaving humans more than 170 years ago, and in 2001 recognised slavery and the slave trade as "crimes against humanity".
From Barron's ● May 28, 2026
One of them, an intricately carved throne, expresses the Kingdom of Dahomey’s expansionist practice of enslaving captured enemies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 1, 2024
“You’ll learn, young brotha. You’ll learn. The Europeans succeeded in denigrating and enslaving peoples of African descent, but there’s royal blood flowing through your veins, you hear me?”
From "Dear Martin" by Nic Stone
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.
