Word.ws English Dictionary

galley slave

galley slave noun: a slave who rows in a galley (type of ship).

Noun

galley slave (plural galley slaves)

  1. (historical) A slave who rows in a galley (type of ship).
    • "That is a chain of galley slaves, on the way to the galleys by force of the king's orders." "How by force?" asked Don Quixote; "is it possible that the king uses force against anyone?" "I do not say that," answered Sancho, "but that these are people condemned for their crimes to serve by force in...1885, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, chapter XXII, in John Ormsby, transl., The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha […] In Four Vols, volume I, London: Smith, Elder & Co. […], →OCLC, part I...
    • "What are gurapas?" asked Don Quixote.
      "Gurapas are galleys," responded the galley slave.Part 1 published in 1605, Part 2 in 1615, translated in 2003, Miguel de Cervantes and translated by Edith Grossman, Don Quixote, page 164
    Synonyms:
    gallerian
  2. (obsolete, slang) A typesetter (person who arranged type in a galley for printing).
    • The "galley slaves" in those days were the genuine article, and by the "chains that bound them" were no doubt the original members of the union.1905, American Printer and Bookmaker: Jan.-Feb. 1900, page 443

galley slave meaning in Tamil

galley slave in Tamil

குற்றவாளி

Synonyms of galley slave

Forms of galley slave

pluralgalley slaves
alternative formgalley-slave
alternative formgalleyslave

Questions about galley slave

What does galley slave mean?
Galley slave means a slave who rows in a galley (type of ship).
What is galley slave in Tamil?
Galley slave in Tamil is குற்றவாளி. See Galley slave meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is galley slave?
Galley slave is a noun.
What is the plural of galley slave?
The plural of galley slave is galley slaves.

Words near galley slave in the dictionary

  1. galley kitchen
  2. galley kitchens
  3. galley news
  4. galley proof
  5. galley proofs
  6. galley slave
  7. galley slaves
  8. galley slice
  9. galley slices
  10. galley worm
  11. galley worms

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: galley slave (page history and authors); galley slave (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “galley slave.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/galley_slave. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.