as in slaves
a person in the past who belonged to a low social class and who lived and worked on land owned by another person
Medieval serfs who tended land owned by a lord.
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Recent Examples of serfs
Slaves, serfs, peasants, and wage workers mostly understood that what was being struck was a hammer blow on their behalf.
—
Jack Sheehan
september 4, Literary Hub, 4 Sep. 2025
Jack Sheehan
september 4, Literary Hub, 4 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for serfs
Noun
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Spain brought the crop to the island in the 1500s and set up massive plantations manned by slaves.—
Andrew R. Chow,
Time,
9 Feb. 2026
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My maternal grandfather, Frederick Douglas Fisher—both of his parents were slaves.—
Anne Applebaum,
The Atlantic,
6 Feb. 2026
Noun
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But what will inevitably be first in the conversation is the sequence in which two servants engage in rough role-play in a barn.—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
11 Feb. 2026
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The script also stirs in a BDSM tryst between two servants in a stable.—
Amy Nicholson,
Los Angeles Times,
11 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Serfs.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/serfs. Accessed 15 Feb. 2026.
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