Meaning & use
slave
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Meanings
nouncountable
A person who is treated as property, owned by another, and made to work without pay or freedom to leave.
Grammar: Has a plural: slaves. Many writers now prefer enslaved person to stress that slavery was forced on people.
Patterns
- a slave to someone
Museums now tell the stories of people who were once held as slaves.
The law banned the trade in slaves across the empire.
Historians study the diaries of a slave who escaped to freedom.
nouncountablefigurative
Someone who is controlled by something, such as a habit, a duty or an emotion, and cannot easily break free.
Grammar: Used figuratively with to: a slave to fashion.
Patterns
- a slave to something
He was a slave to his phone and checked it every minute.
She refused to be a slave to the clock.
Many people become slaves to routine without noticing.
verbintransitiveinformal
To work extremely hard, often for long hours and little reward.
Grammar: No object; often used with away: she slaved away in the kitchen.
Patterns
- slave away
- slave over something
I slaved away all weekend to finish the report.
He slaved over a hot stove to prepare the feast.
They slaved for years to build the business.
nouncountabletechnicalcomputing
A machine, device or part that is controlled by another one, called the master.
Grammar: A technical use in computing and engineering; the term is increasingly replaced by words like secondary or follower.
Patterns
- a slave to something
The main clock sends signals to each slave clock in the building.
In the old design, one disk acted as the slave of the other.
Word forms
| plural | slaves |
|---|---|
| third person singular | slaves |
| past tense | slaved |
| -ing form | slaving |
Common combinations
- slave trade
- The abolition of the slave trade was a major turning point in history.
- escaped slave
- An escaped slave wrote a famous account of life in captivity.
- slave labor
- The factory was criticized for using slave labor.
- slave away
- She slaved away at her desk until midnight.
- a slave to fashion
- He insisted he was no slave to fashion.
Synonyms and how they differ
- enslaved person
- Enslaved person is the preferred modern phrase because it stresses that someone was forced into slavery.
- serf
- A serf was tied to land in medieval Europe but had some limited rights, unlike a slave owned as property.
- drudge
- Drudge is a person who does hard, boring work, but without being owned.
- toil
- Toil as a verb means to work very hard for a long time, and is more formal than slave.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: slave or servant?
slave vs servant
A servant works for an employer and is normally paid and free to leave, while a slave is owned and forced to work.
Practice
She ______ away in the kitchen all day to prepare the wedding meal.
Choose one answer.
Slave away means to work extremely hard. Slipped, slid and slammed do not combine with away to mean working hard.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “slave”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.