servitude

[sur-vi-tood, -tyood]

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noun

slavery or bondage of any kind: political or intellectual servitude.
compulsory service or labor as a punishment for criminals: penal servitude.
Law. a right possessed by one person to use another's property.

Origin of servitude

1425–75; late Middle English < Late Latin servitūdō, equivalent to servi-, combining form of servus slave + -tūdō, -tude

Synonyms for servitude

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1. serfdom, thralldom. See slavery.

Antonyms for servitude

1. liberty.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for servitude

serfdom, enslavement, bondage, subjugation, thralldom, thrall, obedience, confinement, yoke, subjection, peonage, bonds, vassalage

Examples from the Web for servitude

Contemporary Examples of servitude

Trapped in the cycle of permanent emergency and perpetual action, he wrote, “servitude has no rest, agitation no pleasure.”
Hunter S. Thompson Was Right About America: It’s Still Freaks vs. Fear
James Poulos
February 8, 2014
But the rush to replace words with images may be preparing us for servitude.
The Dark Side of Wordless Internet Slang
James Poulos
January 18, 2014
“I tried to kill myself twice,” says Atia, now 14 and still living in servitude.
In South Sudan, Girls Are Given Away to Settle Family Feuds
Tom Rhodes
April 6, 2012

Historical Examples of servitude

Through what medium can the idea of servitude enter their minds?
The New Adam and Eve (From "Mosses From An Old Manse")
Nathaniel Hawthorne
And so may the temple fall with its deity of falsehood and servitude!
The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete
Emile Zola
But it by no means follows that the domination of servitude must, or even can, be perpetual.
Freeland
Theodor Hertzka
What wonder that we can live like masters, notwithstanding that servitude is not known in Freeland!
Freeland
Theodor Hertzka
God help the Danes, if they have fallen into servitude among these blackguards!
Homeward Bound
James Fenimore Cooper

British Dictionary definitions for servitude

servitude

noun

the state or condition of a slave; bondage
the state or condition of being subjected to or dominated by a person or thingservitude to drink
law a burden attaching to an estate for the benefit of an adjoining estate or of some definite personSee also easement
short for penal servitude

Word Origin for servitude

C15: via Old French from Latin servitūdō, from servus a slave

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for servitude

early 15c., "condition of being enslaved," from Old French servitude, servitute (13c.) and directly from Late Latin servitudo "slavery," from Latin servus "a slave" (see serve (v.)) + abstract noun suffix.