Slave definition | Dictionary.com

slave

[sleyv]

noun, verb, slaved, slav⋅ing.

–noun

1.	a person who is the property of and wholly subject to another; a bond servant.

2.	a person entirely under the domination of some influence or person: a slave to a drug.

3.	a drudge: a housekeeping slave.

4.	a slave ant.

5.	Photography. a subsidiary flash lamp actuated through its photoelectric cell when the principal flash lamp is discharged.

6.	Machinery. a mechanism under control of and repeating the actions of a similar mechanism. Compare master (def. 19).

–verb (used without object)

7.	to work like a slave; drudge.

8.	to engage in the slave trade; procure, transport, or sell slaves.

–verb (used with object)

9.	to connect (a machine) to a master as its slave.

10.	Archaic. to enslave.

Origin:
1250–1300; ME sclave < ML sclāvus (masc.), sclāva (fem.) slave, special use of Sclāvus Slav, so called because Slavs were commonly enslaved in the early Middle Ages; see Slav

Related forms:

slaveless, adjective

slavelike, adjective

Synonyms:
7. toil, labor, slog, grind.

Slave

[sleyv]

–noun, plural Slaves, (especially collectively

) Slave.

a member of a group of Athabaskan-speaking North American Indians living in the upper Mackenzie River valley region of the Northwest Territories and in parts of British Columbia, Alberta, and the Yukon Territory.

Also, Slavey.

Slave River

–noun

a river in NE Alberta and the Northwest Territories, in Canada: flowing from Lake Athabaska NW to Great Slave Lake. 258 mi. (415 km) long.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To Slave

slave (slāv)

One bound in servitude as the property of a person or household.
One who is abjectly subservient to a specified person or influence: "I was still the slave of education and prejudice" (Edward Gibbon).
One who works extremely hard.
A machine or component controlled by another machine or component.

intr.v. slaved, slav·ing, slaves

To work very hard or doggedly; toil.
To trade in or transport slaves.

[Middle English sclave, from Old French esclave, from Medieval Latin sclāvus, from Sclāvus, Slav (from the widespread enslavement of captured Slavs in the early Middle Ages); see Slav.]

Word History: The derivation of the word slave encapsulates a bit of European history and explains why the two words slaves and Slavs are so similar; they are, in fact, historically identical. The word slave first appears in English around 1290, spelled sclave. The spelling is based on Old French esclave from Medieval Latin sclavus, "Slav, slave," first recorded around 800. Sclavus comes from Byzantine Greek sklabos (pronounced sklävōs) "Slav," which appears around 580. Sklavos approximates the Slavs' own name for themselves, the Slověnci, surviving in English Slovene and Slovenian. The spelling of English slave, closer to its original Slavic form, first appears in English in 1538. Slavs became slaves around the beginning of the ninth century when the Holy Roman Empire tried to stabilize a German-Slav frontier. By the 12th century stabilization had given way to wars of expansion and extermination that did not end until the Poles crushed the Teutonic Knights at Grunwald in 1410. · As far as the Slavs' own self-designation goes, its meaning is, understandably, better than "slave"; it comes from the Indo-European root *kleu-, whose basic meaning is "to hear" and occurs in many derivatives meaning "renown, fame." The Slavs are thus "the famous people." Slavic names ending in -slav incorporate the same word, such as Czech Bohu-slav, "God's fame," Russian Msti-slav, "vengeful fame," and Polish Stani-slaw, "famous for withstanding (enemies)."

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Slave

Slave\, n. See Slav.

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.]

1. 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? --Milton.

2. 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.

3. A drudge; one who labors like a slave.

4. An abject person; a wretch. --Shak.

Slave ant (Zo["o]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.

Syn: Bond servant; bondman; bondslave; captive; henchman; vassal; dependent; drudge. See Serf.

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. --Marston.

Language Translation for : Slave

Spanish: esclavo,

German: der Sklave, die Sklavin,

Japanese: 奴隷

More Translations »

slave (n.)

c.1290, "person who is the property of another," from O.Fr. esclave, from M.L. Sclavus "slave" (cf. It. schiavo, Fr. esclave, Sp. esclavo), originally "Slav" (see Slav), so called because of the many Slavs sold into slavery by conquering peoples.

"This sense development arose in the consequence of the wars waged by Otto the Great and his successors against the Slavs, a great number of whom they took captive and sold into slavery." [Klein]

O.E. Wealh "Briton" also began to be used in the sense of "serf, slave" c.850; and Skt. dasa-, which can mean "slave," is apparently connected to dasyu- "pre-Aryan inhabitant of India." More common O.E. words for slave were þeow (related to þeowian "to serve") and þræl (see thrall). The Slavic words for "slave" (Rus. rab, Serbo-Croatian rob, O.C.S. rabu) are from O.Slav. *orbu, from the PIE base *orbh- (also source of orphan) the ground sense of which seems to be "thing that changes allegiance" (in the case of the slave, from himself to his master). The Slavic word is also the source of robot. Applied to devices from 1904, especially those which are controlled by others (cf. slave jib in sailing, similarly of locomotives, flash bulbs, amplifiers). Slavery is from 1551; slavish is attested from 1565; in the sense of "servilely imitative" it is from 1753. slave-driver is attested from 1807. In U.S. history, slavocracy "the political dominance of slave-owners" is attested from 1840.

slave (v.)

1602, "to enslave," from slave (n.). The meaning "work like a slave" is first recorded 1719.

Slave

Indian tribe of northwestern Canada, 1789, from slave, translating Cree awahkan "captive, slave."

Slave

Jer. 2:14 (A.V.), but not there found in the original. In Rev. 18:13 the word "slaves" is the rendering of a Greek word meaning "bodies." The Hebrew and Greek words for slave are usually rendered simply "servant," "bondman," or "bondservant." Slavery as it existed under the Mosaic law has no modern parallel. That law did not originate but only regulated the already existing custom of slavery (Ex. 21:20, 21, 26, 27; Lev. 25:44-46; Josh. 9:6-27). The gospel in its spirit and genius is hostile to slavery in every form, which under its influence is gradually disappearing from among men.

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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Slave

group of Athabascan-speaking Indians of Canada, originally inhabiting the western shores of the Great Slave Lake, the basins of the Mackenzie and Liard rivers, and other neighbouring riverine and forest areas. Their name, Awokanak, or Slave, was given them by the Cree, who plundered and often enslaved numbers of them, and this name became the familiar one used by the French and English, for the Slave had a general reputation for timidity or pacifism, whether deserved or not.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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