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galley slaves

galley slaves is the plural of galley slave.

Meaning of galley slave

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...
    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

Questions about galley slaves

What is galley slaves the plural of?
Galley slaves is the plural of galley slave.

Words near galley slaves in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: galley slaves (page history and authors); galley slave (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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