Villanage

1 definition found

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

  Villanage \Vil"lan*age\ (?; 48), n. [OF. villenage, vilenage.
     See {Villain}.]
     1. (Feudal Law) The state of a villain, or serf; base
        servitude; tenure on condition of doing the meanest
        services for the lord. [In this sense written also
        {villenage}, and {villeinage}.]


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              I speak even now as if sin were condemned in a
              perpetual villanage, never to be manumitted.
                                                    --Milton.
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              Some faint traces of villanage were detected by the
              curious so late as the days of the Stuarts.
                                                    --Macaulay.
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     2. Baseness; infamy; villainy. [Obs.] --Dryden.
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