villeinage
Americannoun
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the tenure by which a villein held land and tenements from a lord.
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the condition or status of a villein.
noun
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the status and condition of a villein
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the tenure by which a villein held his land
Etymology
Origin of villeinage
1275–1325; Middle English vilenage < Anglo-French, Old French. See villein, -age
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.
Yea," said he, "that wot I well, that these are of the kin of the daughters of the horse-leech; but how shall they slake their greed, seeing that as thou sayest villeinage shall be gone?
From A Dream of John Ball; and, a king's lesson by William Morris
In the new French possessions, villeinage and servitude were abolished, with a haste and recklessness which was intended to win the people to the new dominion.
From Pictures of German Life in the XVIIIth and XIXth Centuries, Vol. I. by Gustav Freytag
For one thing, the poll-tax was stopped, and the end of villeinage was hastened.
From The Rise of the Democracy by Joseph Clayton
The ceorls tended to sink to the position known later as villeinage.
From The World's Greatest Books — Volume 11 — Ancient and Mediæval History by Sir John Alexander Hammerton
In the seventy years which had intervened since the last peasant rising, villeinage had died naturally away before the progress of social change.
From History of the English People, Volume III The Parliament, 1399-1461; The Monarchy 1461-1540 by John Richard Green
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.
