Other

slave

Pronunciation: /sleɪv/

Translate slave | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish

Definition of slave

noun

(especially in the past) a person who is the legal property of another and is forced to obey them: he killed the natives or turned them into slaves
a person who works very hard without proper remuneration or appreciation:by the time I was ten, I had become her slave, doing all the housework
a person who is excessively dependent upon or controlled by something:the poorest people of the world are slaves to the banks she was no slave to fashion
a device, or part of one, directly controlled by another: [as modifier]:a slave cassette deckCompare with master¹.

verb

[no object]

work excessively hard:after slaving away for fourteen years all he gets is two thousand
[with object] subject (a device) to control by another:should the need arise, the two channels can be slaved together

Origin:

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

slave in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of slave in the US English dictionary

Nearby words

More results for slave

Subscriber login

Library card login