slaves

Noun

slave (plural slaves)

1. 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
2. (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.
3. (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

4. (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

   Synonyms:

   thrall

5. 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
6. 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.

See all 11 meanings of slave