thrall

[ thrawl ]
See synonyms for thrall on Thesaurus.com
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.

  1. 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.

verb (used with object)
  1. Archaic. to put or hold in thralldom; enslave.

adjective
  1. Archaic. subjected to bondage; enslaved.

Origin of thrall

1
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”

Other words from thrall

  • un·thralled, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use thrall in a sentence

  • 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.

    Nicanor - Teller of Tales | C. Bryson Taylor
  • He dumbly felt his misfortune in being thralled by a nature of greater moral crudity than his own.

    The Lady of Fort St. John | Mary Hartwell Catherwood
  • Now was I under the spell of that ancient life which had held him thralled to his very end.

    Miss Primrose | Roy Rolfe Gilson
  • He was the voice of God talking into men's ears; and the music of that low, quiet voice thrilled and thralled their hearts.

  • Who had listened thralled to the silver speech which was all his?

    Nicanor - Teller of Tales | C. Bryson Taylor

British Dictionary definitions for thrall

thrall

/ (θrɔːl) /


noun
  1. Also called: thraldom, (US) thralldom (ˈθrɔːldəm) the state or condition of being in the power of another person

  2. a person who is in such a state

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

verb
  1. (tr) to enslave or dominate

Origin of thrall

1
Old English thrǣl slave, from Old Norse thrǣll

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