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.
Mark Joseph Stern: Elizabeth Turner was 8 years old when she was indentured just two days after she and her mother ostensibly gained their freedom.
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026
The Freedmen’s Bureau used it to reunite 110 indentured children with their parents.
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026
Generations before aspiring communicators began attending journalism schools, and centuries before some of them skipped formal training altogether and simply declared themselves online influencers, most future news professionals launched their careers as indentured apprentices.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
To me, indentured wealth feels like something that should be disbanded.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 28, 2024
An indentured servant was typically someone who agreed to work for several years in exchange for his or her passage, eventual freedom, and the promise of some land.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
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.
