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:
Most notably, “Not Built in a Day” lacks any deep reckoning with the question of why the Romans built such an exceptionally vast and enduring slave system.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
"I think that the transatlantic slave trade was the greatest crime against humanity, and ancestors also took part as players in that trade," says the king.
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
A year after he gained his freedom, Jennings is widely believed to have helped organize the largest attempted nonviolent slave escape in the United States, a plot that ultimately failed.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
In the 18th Century, the Church's missionary wing ran plantations and owned hundreds of slaves, which helped fund its work across the Americas and beyond.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
Estimates vary as to how many slaves are on Sumba.
From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026
“When we were the political slaves of King George, and wanted to be free, we called the maxim that ‘all men are created equal’ a self-evident truth,” Lincoln wrote in 1855.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 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
Add to all this the sudden presence of 4 million newly freed slaves, and the picture becomes even more complicated.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
It often means we lose a lot in the edit, scenes that we’ve slaved over, beautifully shot work, prized moments, but his instincts are always, always right.”
From Washington Times ● Nov. 15, 2019
The famous staircase, the kitchen where Alice merrily slaved away, the bedrooms — all were built on a sound stage, making our memories of the house as real as anything else on the show.
From Salon ● Sep. 7, 2019
My mother slaved for two days, even hiring a cook to assist her.
From New York Times ● Nov. 6, 2017
The people who served and quite literally slaved under the merchant class had little chance at accessing knowledge in those books and libraries and experiencing democracy in any real way.
From Slate ● Nov. 10, 2015
For many Hitler Youth, the realization that they had worked and slaved for a criminal cause came about only after a period of many years.
From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
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
The UK, which was one of the major slaving nations before going on to lead the fight to abolish the trade, has also repeatedly ruled out paying reparations.
From BBC ● Mar. 27, 2026
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
Liverpool, for example, has the oldest Black community in Europe, and more than 2,000 slaving ships were built in the city’s docks between 1701 and 1810.
From New York Times ● Oct. 14, 2022
I thought of quiet Hatun, my older brother, slaving away on the distant roads.
From "The Ugly One" by Leanne Statland Ellis
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.
