slave

/sleɪv/

slave noun: a person who is held in servitude as the property of another person, and whose labor (and often also whose body and life) is subject to the owner's volition and control.

Noun (1)

slave (plural slaves)

A person who is held in servitude as the property of another person, and whose labor (and often also whose body and life) is subject to the owner's volition and control.
- Fear of their cargo bred a savage cruelty into the crew. One captain, to strike terror into the rest, killed a slave and dividing heart, liver and entrails into 300 pieces made each of the slaves eat one, threatening those who refused with the same torture. Such incidents were not rare.1963, C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins, 2nd Revised edition, page 9
(figuratively) A drudge; one who labors or is obliged (e.g. by prior contract) to labor like a slave with limited rights, e.g. an indentured servant.
(figuratively) An abject person.
- Art thou the ſlaue that with thy breath haſt kill'd / Mine innocent child?1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, Much Adoe about Nothing. […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act V...
Synonyms:

wretch
(figuratively) One who has no power of resistance to something, one who surrenders to or is under the domination of something.
- a slave to passion, to strong drink, or to ambition
- Slave to the rhythm! / Keep it up, keep it up! / Never stop! Never stop!1985, “Slave to the Rhythm”, in Slave to the Rhythm, performed by Grace Jones
Synonyms:

thrall
A submissive partner in a BDSM relationship who consensually submits to, sexually or personally, serving one or more masters or mistresses.
- In the clip the black female “slave” dons a chain around her neck for which her white mistress possesses the key. The black woman sub is further disciplined by the power of speech—the force of silence.[2016, Ariane Cruz, The Color of Kink: Black Women, BDSM, and Pornography, NYU Press, →ISBN, page 39
A sex slave, a person who is forced against their will to perform, for another person or group, sexual acts on a regular or continuing basis.
A device (such as a secondary flash or hard drive) that is subject to the control of another (a master).
- If you administer your own reverse DNS zones, remember to include them in your slave configuration.2011, Roderick W. Smith, LPIC-2 Linux Professional Institute Certification Study Guide, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN
Synonyms:

secondary, worker

Antonyms:

master, primary

Verb

slave (third-person singular simple present slaves, present participle slaving, simple past and past participle slaved)

To work as a slaver, to enslave people.
- MASSINISSA: Wilt thou be slaved?
  SOPHONISBA: No, free1606, John Marston, The Wonder of Women
- The truth is from the Zambesi to Lake Nyasa on the north and east banks of the river, there is nothing but slaving — Africans selling each other . . .1908, James Wells, Stewart of Lovedale: The Life of James Stewart, D.D., M.D., Hon. F.R.G.S., page 88
(intransitive) To work hard.
- I was slaving all day over a hot stove.
(transitive) To place a device under the control of another.
- to slave a hard disk
- Slaving one digital audio device to another unit using timecode alone results in time-based synchronisation[…]2005, Simon Millward, Fast Guide to Cubase SX, page 403

Proper noun capitalized: Slave

Slave

(alternative) Alternative form of Slavey.
Synonym of Sclavia.

Synonyms:

Sclavia

Noun (2) capitalized: Slave

Slave (plural Slaves)

(alternative) Alternative form of Slavey.
(obsolete) Obsolete form of Slav.
- Slaves or Slavì of Pomerania, with their confederates defeated near Lunden in Scania, […]1766, An Universal History, from the Earliest Account of Time, volume XLIV, index
- Moldavia and Wallachia, inhabited by Slaves nominally belonging to the Turkish empire, are in the actual military occupation of Russia. Servia, inhabited by the Slavic Serbs, is avowedly disloyal to the Porte, […]1850 December, “Russian Ambition”, in The American Whig Review, page 622

slave meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

slave in Hindi

person owned by another: दास dās, ग़ुलाम ġulām, दासी dāsī

slave in Tamil

person owned by another: அடிமை aṭimai
person forced to work for another: அடிமை aṭimai
work hard: உழை uḻai

slave in Urdu

person owned by another: غُلام ġulām, عَبْد 'abd, داس dās, داسی dāsī, بَنْدَہ banda

slave in Bengali

person owned by another: দাস daś, গোলাম gōlam, বান্দা banda

More languagesFewer languages

slave in Telugu: దాసుడు dāsuḍu, బానిస bānisa
slave in Malayalam: അടിമ aṭima
slave in Kannada: ಗುಲಾಮ gulāma
slave in Punjabi: ਗੁਲਾਮ gulām
slave in Sanskrit: दास dāsa
slave in Sinhala: දාසයා dāsayā
slave in Assamese: দাস dax
slave in Nepali: दास dās
slave in Pashto: غلام ǧolām
slave in Tagalog: alipin, busabos, magpaalipin
slave in Arabic: عَبْد ʕabd, أَمَة ʔama
slave in Malay: hamba
slave in Indonesian: hamba, budak, pesuruh
slave in Persian: بَرْدِه barde, غُلام ġolâm, بَنْدِه bande, عَبْد abd
slave in Thai: ทาส tâat, ข้า kâa
slave in Vietnamese: nô lệ
slave in Myanmar: ကျွန် kywan, ကျွန်မ kywanma.

Examples of slave in a sentence

Wage earners that resemble nothing so much as former southern slaves.
I used to be a slave, but I ended up topping.
Rome used crucifixions as a deterrent, and standard for the 'vilest' crimes, such as slave rebellion.

All 40 example sentences with slave

Synonyms of slave

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of slave

Forms of slave

Noun
plural	slaves
plural	Slaves
Verb
third-person singular present	slaves
present participle	slaving
past participle	slaved
past	slaved

Plural of slave: slaves

Origin of slave

Inherited from Middle English sclave, from Old French esclave, from Medieval Latin sclavus (“slave”), from Late Latin Sclavus (“Slav”), traditionally assumed to be because Slavs were often forced into slavery in the Middle Ages. The Latin word is from Byzantine Greek Σκλάβος (Sklábos); see that entry and Slav for more. Displaced native Old English þēow. Thrall and bondsman/bondswoman, however, remain common synonyms. Doublet of ciao and Slav. An alternative hypothesis derives sclavus from Ancient Greek σκῡλεύω (skūleúō), σκῡλάω (skūláō, “to strip or despoil a slain enemy”).

Words formed from slave

Words that rhyme with slave

29 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about slave

What does slave mean?: Slave means a person who is held in servitude as the property of another person, and whose labor (and often also whose body and life) is subject to the owner's volition and control.
What is slave in Hindi?: Slave in Hindi is दास (dās), ग़ुलाम (ġulām), दासी (dāsī). See Slave meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is slave?: Slave can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce slave?: Slave is pronounced /sleɪv/.
What is the plural of slave?: The plural of slave is slaves.

Words near slave in the dictionary

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

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-slave.ogg.

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