Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913 + 1828)

Displaying 1 result(s) from the 1913 edition:

Bondage (Page: 165)

Bond"age (?), n. [LL. bondagium. See Bond, a.]

1. The state of being bound; condition of being under restraint; restraint of personal liberty by compulsion; involuntary servitude; slavery; captivity.

The King, when he designed you for my guard, Resolved he would not make my bondage hard. Dryden.

2. Obligation; tie of duty.

He must resolve by no means to be . . . brought under the bondage of onserving oaths. South.

3. (Old Eng. Law) Villenage; tenure of land on condition of doing the meanest services for the owner. Syn. -- Thralldom; bond service; imprisonment.