as in slavery
the state of being an enslaved person
people freed from bondage
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Recent Examples of bondage
They were held in bondage, forced to labor long hours with no pay, provided inadequate food and shelter, and under threat of physical abuse or even death at the slightest provocation.
—
Big Think, 13 Nov. 2025
Douglass’s former North Star co-editor, Martin Delany, who had been admitted to Harvard Medical School but was forced out after white students complained, responded to Dred Scott — and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 — by writing a novel whose hero escapes bondage and plots an overthrow of slavery.
—Equal Justice Initiative, USA Today, 6 Nov. 2025
Rogers noted that the book argues that a central cause of the war was Anglo settlers’ determination to keep slaves in bondage after Mexico largely abolished it.
—Preston Fore, Fortune, 25 Oct. 2025
For a stroll back in time, bucolic Natchez, MS offers tourists a comforting view of the antebellum South, glossing over such inconvenient realities as millions of people held in bondage.
—Matthew Carey, Deadline, 21 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for bondage
Big Think, 13 Nov. 2025
Douglass’s former North Star co-editor, Martin Delany, who had been admitted to Harvard Medical School but was forced out after white students complained, responded to Dred Scott — and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 — by writing a novel whose hero escapes bondage and plots an overthrow of slavery.
—Equal Justice Initiative, USA Today, 6 Nov. 2025
Rogers noted that the book argues that a central cause of the war was Anglo settlers’ determination to keep slaves in bondage after Mexico largely abolished it.
—Preston Fore, Fortune, 25 Oct. 2025
For a stroll back in time, bucolic Natchez, MS offers tourists a comforting view of the antebellum South, glossing over such inconvenient realities as millions of people held in bondage.
—Matthew Carey, Deadline, 21 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for bondage
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bondage
slavery
Noun
-
At the time, abolitionists committed to the eradication of slavery remained a small minority, and most Northerners belonged to either the Whig or Democratic parties.—
Stephen Mihm,
Twin Cities,
8 Feb. 2026
-
Only during the last months of the war, with slavery disintegrating and northern victory all but assured, did exchanges resume.—
Drew Gilpin Faust,
The Atlantic,
8 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Bondage.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bondage. Accessed 15 Feb. 2026.
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