indentures

Noun

indenture (plural indentures)

1. A contract which binds a person to work for another, under specified conditions, for a specified time (often as an apprentice).
   • And so the schoolmistress reconciled the recommendation to her conscience, and the indentures were cancelled, and the apprentice was free.1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter II, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC
2. A contract relating to lending (typically for issuing a bond), a real estate transaction, or a bankruptcy that imposes additional conditions on one or both parties.
3. (in plural, often) A document, written as duplicates separated by indentations, specifying either of the above contracts.
   • Walking the street very hungry, and not knowing what to do with himself, a crimp's bill was put into his hand, offering immediate entertainment and encouragement to such as would bind themselves to serve in America. He went directly, sign'd the indentures, was put into the ship, and came over...1771–1790, Benjamin Franklin, “The Autobiography [Part 1]”, in John Bigelow, editor, Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. […], Philadelphia, Pa.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott & Co., published 1868...
4. An indentation; a recess.
   • The narrow windows, flanked by deep indentures into the walls, seemed formed rather to exclude than to admit the cheerful light; and the heavy and gloomy appearance of the thunder-sky added still farther to the obscurity.1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter X, in Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volume I (The Bride of Lammermoor), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for...

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