thrall

American  

[thrawl] / θrɔl /

noun

1. a person who is morally or mentally enslaved by some power, influence, or the like.

   He was the thrall of morbid fantasies.

2. a person held in bondage or slavery.

3. slavery; thralldom.

4. the condition of being in the power of something or someone; a state of subjugation or rapt absorption.

   We will receive no help from the media, who are for the most part in thrall to the political establishment.

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verb (used with object)

• thralls,
  present (3rd person singular)
• thralled,
  past participle,  past
• thralling
  present participle

1. Archaic. to put or hold in thralldom; enslave.

adjective

1. Archaic. subjected to bondage; enslaved.

thrall British  

/ θrɔːl /

noun

1. Also called: thraldom, thralldom. the state or condition of being in the power of another person

2. a person who is in such a state

3. a person totally subject to some need, desire, appetite, etc

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verb

1. (tr) to enslave or dominate

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unthralled
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• thralling
  present
• thralled
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• thrall
  simple
• thralls
  simple
• have thralled
  perfect
• has thralled
  perfect
• am thralling
  progressive
• are thralling
  progressive
• is thralling
  progressive
• have been thralling
  perfect progressive
• has been thralling
  perfect progressive

Past

• thralled
  simple
• had thralled
  perfect
• was thralling
  progressive
• were thralling
  progressive
• had been thralling
  perfect progressive

Future

• will thrall
  simple
• will have thralled
  perfect
• will be thralling
  progressive
• will have been thralling
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of thrall

First recorded before 950; Middle English thral, thral(l)e, threl(l)e, Old English thrǣl “bondman, slave, servant, thrall,” from Old Norse thrǣll “slave, servant”

Explanation

When you're in thrall to someone, you are under their control in some way. If you're being held as a hostage, you're in thrall to your captor. You can be in thrall to anything that holds you captive or controls your thoughts or actions, like an addiction, a disease, or a cult leader. The Old English word that thrall comes from literally means "slave" or "servant." Another word with the same root as thrall is enthrall, which is sort of a friendlier version of the same idea. If you're enthralled by someone, you're captivated or fascinated, rather than "held in bondage."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

thrall thralls thralled thralling

Graham was, rhetorically, almost pathetically in Trump’s thrall, heaping flattery onto a president who’d once posted Graham’s phone number online for mass harassment.

From Slate ● Jul. 14, 2026

In thrall to her mission, June rents a dusty, disheveled storage room in town.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 8, 2026

He said while Tina Smith was "in the thrall of McKenna" it was implausible that she did not know what was happening in McKenna's operations.

From BBC ● Feb. 12, 2026

Those not already in thrall to Mr. Winchester may find that however much they want to be pleased with his style in “The Breath of the Gods,” they can’t quite get there.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 28, 2025

She was limp in its thrall or rigid in an effort to dismiss it.

From "Jazz" by Toni Morrison

People have too easily forgotten the eras when deadly, disfiguring diseases held communities in thralls of fear and grief.

From Washington Times ● May 8, 2019

Male thralls likely were involved in cutting trees, building ships, and rowing those vessels for their Viking masters.

From National Geographic ● Dec. 28, 2015

This "Despicable Me" prequel finds the yellow pill-shaped wannabe-supervillain thralls in search of a master.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 10, 2015

A pair of gaunt children and some thralls stared at him with dull eyes, but there was no sign of his lord father, nor anyone else he recalled from boyhood.

From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin

His own chambers in the Guest Keep had never seemed so chilly, though the thralls had left a brazier burning.

From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin

He was the voice of God talking into men's ears; and the music of that low, quiet voice thrilled and thralled their hearts.

From Quiet Talks on Following the Christ by S. D. (Samuel Dickey) Gordon

His was a high and noble mind, chained and thralled by manifold circumstances and accidents to the dull pursuits of worldly ambitions.

From The King's Highway by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James

Through mean and wanton ignorance he swerves,     And worships a false Good, divinely dressed;     Love cannot soar to what it never guessed,     But stoops its flight, and the thralled soul unnerves.

From Sonnets by John Addington Symonds

With such resolve as, on this moonlit terrace, Where, freed awhile from earth's disquietude, My thralled heart might here unchain for ever!—

From The Legendary and Poetical Remains of John Roby author of 'Traditions of Lancashire', with a sketch of his literary life and character by John Roby

This the sure instinct of his art taught him he might not do, since those tales which held them thralled were not for such as she.

From Nicanor - Teller of Tales A Story of Roman Britain by Margaret West Kinney

How a tamed lion learns to survive in the wilderness is told in an en thralling adventure film based on the bestseller by Joy Adamson.

From Time Magazine Archive

Miraculously, over-night, the shabby wall had blossomed into thralling splendor.

From Back Home by Eugene Wood

In waking and sleeping hours Madeline Hammond could not release herself from the thralling memory of that tragedy.

From Light of the Western Stars by Zane Grey

In the Firelight My dear wife sits beside the fire   With folded hands and dreaming eyes, Watching the restless flames aspire,   And wrapped in thralling memories.

From Poems by John Hay

Slowly she drew near, thralling me as it were with the wonder of her look that I had neither power nor will to move or speak.

From Martin Conisby's Vengeance by Jeffery Farnol