Bondage

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Bondage \Bond"age\ (-[asl]j), n. [LL. bondagium. See {Bond}, a.]
     [1913 Webster]
     1. The state of being bound; condition of being under
        restraint; restraint of personal liberty by compulsion;
        involuntary servitude; slavery; captivity.
        [1913 Webster]


  
              The King, when he designed you for my guard,
              Resolved he would not make my bondage hard.
                                                    --Dryden.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Obligation; tie of duty.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              He must resolve by no means to be . . . brought
              under the bondage of observing oaths. --South.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Old Eng. Law) Villenage; tenure of land on condition of
        doing the meanest services for the owner.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Syn: Thralldom; bond service; imprisonment.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  bondage
       n 1: the state of being under the control of another person [syn:
             {slavery}, {thrall}, {thralldom}, {thraldom}]
       2: sexual practice that involves physically restraining (by
          cords or handcuffs) one of the partners

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  31 Moby Thesaurus words for "bondage":
     absolutism, bond service, captivity, control, debt slavery,
     deprivation of freedom, disenfranchisement, disfranchisement,
     domination, enslavement, enthrallment, feudalism, feudality,
     helotism, helotry, indentureship, peonage, restraint, serfdom,
     serfhood, servility, servitude, slavery, subjection, subjugation,
     thrall, thralldom, tyranny, vassalage, villenage, yoke
  
  

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Bondage
     of Israel in Egypt (Ex. 2:23, 25; 5), which is called the "house
     of bondage" (13:3; 20:2). This word is used also with reference
     to the captivity in Babylon (Isa. 14:3), and the oppression of
     the Persian king (Ezra 9:8, 9).