peonage
the condition or service of a peon.
the practice of holding persons in servitude or partial slavery, as to work off a debt or to serve a penal sentence.
Origin of peonage
1Words Nearby peonage
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use peonage in a sentence
David Ruffin, the disgruntled lead singer of The Temptations, complained that the company kept him in “economic peonage.”
I, with a train load of other strikers, went to Louisiana and the whole bunch of us were practically forced into peonage.
The Iron Puddler | James J. DavisThe profit to England from Irish peonage cannot be assessed in terms of trade, or finance, or taxation.
The Crime Against Europe | Roger CasementHad this bill not been bitterly opposed, the Irish people would have been subject to peonage equal to absolute slavery.
Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Vol. 13 | Elbert HubbardJoseph Biggar had the floor and declared the bill was really a move to steal Irish children and sell them into perpetual peonage.
Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Vol. 13 | Elbert Hubbard
Many of these acts betokened an intention on the part of the lawmakers to reduce the freedmen to a state of serfdom or peonage.
The Life of Lyman Trumbull | Horace White
British Dictionary definitions for peonage
peonism (ˈpiːəˌnɪzəm)
/ (ˈpiːənɪdʒ) /
the state of being a peon
a system in which a debtor must work for his creditor until the debt is paid off
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cultural definitions for peonage
[ (pee-uh-nij) ]
A system of forced labor based on debts incurred by workers. Peonage developed particularly in plantation economies, where employers forced laborers to buy from employer-owned stores, pay inflated prices, and stay in debt.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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