indentured
Americanadjective
-
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.
-
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
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.
Both slavery and the system of indentured workers didn't end in Cuba until the late 19th Century.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
The Freedmen’s Bureau used it to reunite 110 indentured children with their parents.
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026
Waves of Indians migrated to East Africa around that time, as teachers, clerks, merchants and indentured workers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 25, 2025
But when she gets kidnapped to work as an indentured servant at the Imperial Palace, she starts making a name for herself with her scientific know-how and talents at deduction.
From Salon ● Jun. 28, 2025
Like Koffi, Sahel had been a beastkeeper indentured to the Night Zoo, which meant he’d had little money in life and likely had even less in death.
From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray
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.
