Meaning of slave in English

Table of contents
  1. Pronunciation
  2. Verb
    1. Definitions
  3. Noun
    1. Etymology
    2. Definitions

  1. Pronunciation

    /sleɪv/

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  1. Verb

    slave

    Definitions

    1. work very hard, like a slave

    Derived terms

  2. Noun

    slave

    Etymology

    Middle English: shortening of Old French esclave, equivalent of medieval Latin sclava (feminine) ‘Slavonic (captive)’: the Slavonic peoples had been reduced to a servile state by conquest in the 9th century

    Definitions

    1. a person who is owned by someone
  3. 2. someone who works as hard as a slave

    Derived terms

  4. 3. someone entirely dominated by some influence or person

    Examples

    • « a slave to fashion »
    • « a slave to cocaine »
    • « his mother was his abject slave »

Famous quotes

  • « Slave to no sect, who takes no private road, But looks through Nature up to Nature's God. »
    Alexander Pope
  • « Trust me that as I ignore all law to help the slave, so will I ignore it all to protect an enslaved woman. »
    Susan B. Anthony
  • « Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners. »
    Vladimir Lenin
  • « For what Harley Street specialist has time to understand the body, let alone the mind or both in combination, when he is a slave to thirteen thousand a year? »
    Virginia Woolf
  • « The perfection of our union, especially our commitment to equality of opportunity, has been a story of constant striving to live up to our Founding principles. This is what Abraham Lincoln meant when he said, 'In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve.' »
    Paul Ryan

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