noun
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the condition of being a vassal or the obligations to which a vassal was liable
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the relationship between a vassal and his lord
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subjection, servitude, or dependence in general
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rare vassals collectively
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of vassalage
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.
Moscow has also leaned heavily on China—further deepening what analysts already describe as an economic vassalage to its neighbor.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 8, 2025
“There’s no statement of vassalage at the site,” says Estrada-Belli.
From National Geographic • Jan. 26, 2024
Not unexpectedly, the Song Son of Heaven declined to submit to vassalage under a man he considered a barbarian, and war broke out.
From Textbooks • Apr. 19, 2023
"He would add," Madison wrote, "that domestic slavery is the most prominent feature in the aristocratic countenance of the proposed Constitution. The vassalage of the poor has ever been the favorite offspring of aristocracy."
From Salon • Jul. 30, 2021
I was a discord in Gateshead Hall: I was like nobody there; I had nothing in harmony with Mrs. Reed or her children, or her chosen vassalage.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
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.
