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

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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”

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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

Efforts to make it appear that one of the world’s wickedest men would be in thrall to this milky, recessive nonentity are laughable.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026

A football nation is in thrall regardless of their colours.

From BBC ● May 10, 2026

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

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 8, 2026

“He is no more than a thrall of the Other, the dark god whose name must not be spoken.”

From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin

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

One of their father's thralls came near, bearing a flagon of wine.

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

The Night’s Watch takes no part, a voice said, but another replied, Stannis fights for the realm, the ironmen for thralls and plunder.

From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin

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

He sat horribly thralled, so long as he was allowed; he crept afterwards to bed and lay there shuddering.

From Ensign Knightley and Other Stories by A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason

Right so your selfe were caught in cunning snare Of a deare foe, and thralled to his love; In whose streight bands ye now captived are So firmely, that ye never may remove.

From The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser, Volume 5 by Edmund Spenser

The dust of dim forgetfulness piles fast Upon the chains that thralled us yesterday.

From Songs Ysame by Albion Fellows Bacon

A girl thralled by the mystery of conception awakes at morn in palpitations, seeing visions.

From Modern Painting by George (George Augustus) Moore

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

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

Yet more than tropic's soft abundance thralling, My stormy North-land wilderness is calling!

From Russian Lyrics by Martha Dickinson Bianchi

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

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

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