serfdom
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.
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.
servitude of any kind: Technology, in the absence of scientific guidance, is a Pied Piper leading us into industrial serfdom.
Origin of serfdom
1- Also Archaic, serf·age .
Words Nearby serfdom
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use serfdom in a sentence
The Romanov tsars imposed rigid serfdom just as that woeful institution was fading almost everywhere else.
Russian History Is on Our Side: Putin Will Surely Screw Himself | P. J. O’Rourke | May 11, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTTragically, the Medievalist Subreddit also never seems to address that tricky issue of serfdom—pro or con?
Five Subreddits You May Have Missed, and Probably Still Should Give a Miss | Kelly Williams Brown | April 5, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTWhy isn't his first step the abolition of the State Department's outrageous program of state-sponsored serfdom?
Another is that the players are exploited in a system that amounts to a kind of serfdom.
College Sports Programs Don’t Deserve the Bad Rap They Routinely Receive | Michael Tomasky | March 17, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTObamacare is pushing America down the road to serfdom, but neither its opponents nor advocates seem to have noticed.
So such as remain are allowed to live, though it must be owned that their condition is but very little removed from serfdom.
The Cradle of Mankind | W.A. WigramWe read of Radischeff—the first to point out the horrors of serfdom—who was imprisoned, deported, and died by suicide.
Comrade Kropotkin | Victor RobinsonAnd as you look, remember that this fair lass was but a peasant's child, born to serfdom at the best.
The Life of Thomas Wanless, Peasant | Alexander Johnstone WilsonAns.: Chattel slavery, serfdom, or feudal slavery and wage slavery.
Communism and Christianism | William Montgomery BrownAnd he declared that he would have abolished serfdom if it had cost him his head—if only civilization had been more advanced.
The Outline of History: Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind | Herbert George Wells
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