serfdom
Americannoun
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the condition of being a serf in a position of servitude, required to render services to a lord.
He lived in serfdom until 1831 when, at the age of 30, he escaped.
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the condition or population of serfs taken as a whole.
Her thesis analyzes the phenomenon of serfdom and the manner in which it changed between 1772 and 1848.
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servitude of any kind.
Technology, in the absence of scientific guidance, is a Pied Piper leading us into industrial serfdom.
Etymology
Origin of serfdom
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.
At best, the idea relates to some kind of individual flourishing, the opposite of corporate serfdom, a sloughing off of organizational chains leading to an explosion of creativity.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 16, 2026
It is an epic saga of Judah Ben-Hur, the Jewish prince banished to Roman serfdom who after many vicissitudes returns to his people and is converted to Christianity.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 25, 2023
Tsar Alexander II abolished serfdom in Russia in 1861.
From Textbooks • Dec. 14, 2022
This nation endured 250 years of Mongol domination, followed by serfdom under the tsars and decades of life without freedom under the communists.
From New York Times • Aug. 30, 2022
In Russia, serfdom only finally ended in 1861, two years before Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.
From "Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science" by Marc Aronson
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.
