Word.ws English Dictionary

slav'ry

slav'ry is the contraction of slavery.

Meaning of slavery

Noun

slavery (usually uncountable, plural slaveries)

  1. (usually) An institution or social practice of owning human beings as property, especially for use as forced laborers.
    • abolition of slavery
  2. (usually) Forced labor in general, regardless of legality.
  3. (usually) A condition of servitude endured by a slave.
    • If you wil willingly remaine with me,
      You ſhall haue honors, as your merits be:
      Or els you ſhal be forc’d with ſlauerie.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
  4. (figuratively, usually) A condition in which one is captivated or subjugated, as by greed or drugs.
    • Man seeks for gold in mines that he may weave / A lasting chain for his own slavery.1818, Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Revolt of Islam, canto 8, stanza 16

See all 5 meanings of slavery

Forms of slav'ry

pluralslav'ries

Questions about slav'ry

What is slav'ry the contraction of?
Slav'ry is the contraction of slavery.

Words near slav'ry in the dictionary

  1. Slav
  2. Slav Defence
  3. Slav Defense
  4. Slav squat
  5. slav'ries
  6. slav'ry
  7. slava
  8. slava cake
  9. slava cakes
  10. slava Ukraini
  11. Slavaboo

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: slav'ry (page history and authors); slavery (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: “slav'ry.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/slav%27ry. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.