Etymology : Middle English sclave, from Old French or Medieval Latin; Old French esclave, from Medieval Latin sclavus, from Sclavus Slavic; from the frequent enslavement of Slavs in central Europe
Pronunciation : 'slAv
Function : noun
Date : 14th century
1. person who belongs to and is completely subject to another; one who is under the influence or domination of a person or thing; drudge; slave ant; system that serves another computer that is connected to it (Computers). work as a slave; work like a slave, drudge, toil, labour; enslave, traffic in slaves. slave\slave\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. slaved ; p. pr. & vb. n. slaving.] to drudge; to toil; to labor as a slave.slave \slave\, v. t. to enslave.slave \slave\ , n. [cf. f. esclave, d. slaaf, dan. slave, sclave, sw. slaf, all fr. g. sklave, mhg. also slave, from the national name of the slavonians, or sclavonians (in ll. slavi or sclavi), who were frequently made slaves by the germans. see:
slav.].
2. a person who is held in bondage to another; one who is wholly subject to the will of another; one who is held as a chattel; one who has no freedom of action, but whose person and services are wholly under the control of another. thou our slave, our captive, at the public mill our drudge?.
3. one who has lost the power of resistance; one who surrenders himself to any power whatever; as, a slave to passion, to lust, to strong drink, to ambition.
4. a drudge; one who labors like a slave.
5. an abject person; a wretch.slave ant (zo?l.), any species of ants which is captured and enslaved by another species, especially formica fusca of europe and america, which is commonly enslaved by formica sanguinea.slave catcher, one who attempted to catch and bring back a fugitive slave to his master.slave coast, part of the western coast of africa to which slaves were brought to be sold to foreigners.slave driver, one who superintends slaves at their work; hence, figuratively, a cruel taskmaster.slave hunt. (a) a search after persons in order to reduce them to slavery. --barth. (b) a search after fugitive slaves, often conducted with bloodhounds.slave ship, a vessel employed in the slave trade or used for transporting slaves; a slaver.slave trade, the business of dealing in slaves, especially of buying them for transportation from their homes to be sold elsewhere.slave trader, one who traffics in slaves.
6. See Slav.
7. A person who is held in bondage to another; one who is wholly subject to the will of another; one who is held as a chattel; one who has no freedom of action, but whose person and services are wholly under the control of another.
8. One who has lost the power of resistance; one who surrenders himself to any power whatever; as, a slave to passion, to lust, to strong drink, to ambition.
9. A drudge; one who labors like a slave.
10. An abject person; a wretch.
11. To drudge; to toil; to labor as a slave.
12. To enslave. a person who is owned by someone someone who works as hard as a slave someone entirely dominated by some influence or person; "a slave to fashion"; "a slave to cocaine"; "his mother was his abject slave" work very hard, like a slave.
13. 1. A slave is someone who is the property of another person and has to work for that person. The state of Liberia was formed a century and a half ago by freed slaves from the United States.
14. You can describe someone as a slave when they are completely under the control of another person or of a powerful influence. Movie stars used to be slaves to the studio system.
15. If you say that a person is slaving over something or is slaving for someone, you mean that they are working very hard. When you're busy all day the last thing you want to do is spend hours slaving over a hot stove. Slave away means the same as slave. He stares at the hundreds of workers slaving away in the intense sun. to work very hard with little time to rest slave away (at sth). Fugitive Slave Acts Great Slave Lake Lesser Slave Lake slave code slave narrative Slave River slave trade.