slave
Americannoun
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slaves
plural
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a person who is the property of and wholly subject to another and forced to provide unpaid labor.
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a person entirely under the domination of some influence or person.
She was a slave to her own ambition.
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a drudge.
a housekeeping slave.
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a slave ant.
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Photography. a subsidiary flash lamp actuated through its photoelectric cell when the principal flash lamp is discharged.
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Machinery, Computers. a device or process under control of or repeating the actions of a similar device or process.
verb (used without object)
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slaves,
present (3rd person singular)
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slaved,
past participle, past
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slaving
present participle
verb (used with object)
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slaves,
present (3rd person singular)
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slaved,
past participle, past
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slaving
present participle
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Machinery, Computers. to connect (a device) to a master as its slave.
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Archaic. to enslave.
noun
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a person legally owned by another and having no freedom of action or right to property
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a person who is forced to work for another against his will
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a person under the domination of another person or some habit or influence
a slave to television
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a person who works in harsh conditions for low pay
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a device that is controlled by or that duplicates the action of another similar device (the master device)
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( as modifier )
slave cylinder
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verb
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to work like a slave
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(tr) an archaic word for enslave
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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slavesimple
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slavessimple
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have slavedperfect
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has slavedperfect
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am slavingprogressive
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are slavingprogressive
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is slavingprogressive
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have been slavingperfect progressive
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has been slavingperfect progressive
Past
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slavedsimple
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had slavedperfect
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was slavingprogressive
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were slavingprogressive
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had been slavingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of slave
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English sclave (also slave ), from Old French escla(i)ve, and Medieval Latin sclāvus (masculine), sclāva (feminine) “slave,” special use of Sclāvus “Slavic, a Slav, slave” (Latin does not tolerate the consonant cluster sl- and employs the cluster scl- instead); so called because Slavs in Central Europe and the Balkans were commonly enslaved in the early Middle Ages; see origin at Slav
Explanation
Someone who is forcibly held in servitude is called a slave. The practice of owning slaves is immoral and detestable. Throughout history there have been slaves, and in some parts of the world some people still force others into slavery. Often the word is used more loosely. You might buy a lot of clothes because you're a slave to the latest fashion trends. You could spend all day in the kitchen, preparing 12 casseroles, working like a slave. That kind of exaggeration is common, but don't kid yourself: nothing is really similar to — or as horrible as — being a slave.
Vocabulary lists containing slave
"Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad"
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Workshop 4, Part 1
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Ancient Greece, Lessons 4–8
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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.
See Examples For:
There is little space for how early Christian ideas were variously used both to reinforce and to challenge aspects of the slave system.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
Many Church of England clergy independently owned slaves, and a recent report by the Church's endowment fund reported the institution made large investments in the slave trade from which it made huge sums of money.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
The insect’s first trips west came soon after, as the transatlantic slave trade brought ships packed with enslaved Africans to the New World.
From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2026
Six weeks earlier, Brown had raided the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, in what was then Virginia, aiming to foment a slave insurrection.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
Like most of his fellow Virginians, he wanted it known that he preferred an early end to the slave trade and regarded the institution of slavery “a deep-rooted abuse.”
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
Estimates vary as to how many slaves are on Sumba.
From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026
Launched in 1966, the carnival celebrates Caribbean culture and the freedom of slaves after emancipation.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
To greatly simplify, the 14th Amendment was originally a response to a Supreme Court decision, the Dred Scott case, that said freed Black slaves could not be U.S. citizens.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
There is also a focus on the lives of the slaves who lived and worked at Mount Vernon, with artifacts such as farm tools and cookware as well as biographies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
Nathaniel Bacon was a white property owner in Jamestown, Virginia, who managed to unite slaves, indentured servants, and poor whites in a revolutionary effort to overthrow the planter elite.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
My mother slaved for two days, even hiring a cook to assist her.
From New York Times ● Nov. 6, 2017
The house her father slaved away to build for his new bride in the 1930s.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 4, 2016
It feels like it has poured out naturally, not something that was slaved over for months.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 19, 2014
But what’s crucial, what gives me some infinitesimal measure of hope, is that this book I wrote and slaved over every day and obsessed over for years will still be out there.
From Salon ● May 12, 2013
I’d eaten the cake, drunk the Tonic, given up the necklace, slaved for my stepmother, let Olive suck me dry.
From "Ella Enchanted" by Gail Carson Levine
St. Patrick offered evocative details of slaving and missionary work in the lands around the Irish Sea.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
At the time Bristol was a major slaving port.
From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2023
Hergé, the illustrator and writer of Tintin and another of my great heroes, once drew a picture of himself slaving at the desk, with Tintin holding a whip over him showing a sort of disdain.
From Salon ● Nov. 21, 2022
“This is my first virus I was working on, and kind of slaving away at it — and it’s really changed the field.”
From Washington Post ● Oct. 10, 2022
And his skin was perfect and tan, but that came again from slaving; in the sun all day, who wouldn’t be tan?
From "The Princess Bride" by William Goldman
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.
