as in peonage
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Recent Examples of serfdom
Following Mexico's independence in 1821, a small landowning elite replaced the colonial rulers, and most of the farmers (except those who joined farming collectives) transitioned from slavery to serfdom.
—
Travel + Leisure Editors, Travel + Leisure, 22 June 2023
The pandemic decreased competition among laborers, raising wages and putting the oppressive system of serfdom in a death spiral.
—Cody Cassidy, Smithsonian Magazine, 13 June 2023
All designed to warn us that behind the veneer of jurisprudential poise and Middle American decency, Amy Coney Barrett is some theocratic medievalist monster, primed to send women back to the kitchen, African-Americans back to the plantations, and the country back to serfdom.
—Gerard Baker, WSJ, 19 Oct. 2020
Birmingham sketches out Russia’s mid-century byzantine chaos with a deft hand, up to the point in 1849 when Dostoevsky was sentenced to death for associating with the Petrashevsky Circle, a progressive group that advocated the ending of serfdom and other measures inimical to czarist autocracy.
—Washington Post, 3 Dec. 2021
See All Example Sentences for serfdom
Travel + Leisure Editors, Travel + Leisure, 22 June 2023
The pandemic decreased competition among laborers, raising wages and putting the oppressive system of serfdom in a death spiral.
—Cody Cassidy, Smithsonian Magazine, 13 June 2023
All designed to warn us that behind the veneer of jurisprudential poise and Middle American decency, Amy Coney Barrett is some theocratic medievalist monster, primed to send women back to the kitchen, African-Americans back to the plantations, and the country back to serfdom.
—Gerard Baker, WSJ, 19 Oct. 2020
Birmingham sketches out Russia’s mid-century byzantine chaos with a deft hand, up to the point in 1849 when Dostoevsky was sentenced to death for associating with the Petrashevsky Circle, a progressive group that advocated the ending of serfdom and other measures inimical to czarist autocracy.
—Washington Post, 3 Dec. 2021
See All Example Sentences for serfdom
Recent Examples of Synonyms for serfdom
Noun
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The Black community’s relationship with growing food is colored by exploitive practices, from slavery to sharecropping, tenant farming and peonage, or debt servitude.—
Lyndsay C. Green,
Detroit Free Press,
27 Nov. 2024
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Further, this much control over the autonomy of an athlete’s rights to their own NIL rights combined with a financial obligation could also trigger scrutiny under the 13th Amendment, which, in addition to abolishing slavery, placed prohibitions on peonage (i.e., working against your will).—
Joe Sabin,
Forbes,
10 Oct. 2024
Noun
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Advertisement California Nevada just banned ‘slavery and involuntary servitude’ in prisons.—
Anabel Sosa,
Los Angeles Times,
18 Jan. 2025
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The legislation also removes language authorizing slavery and involuntary servitude as possible criminal punishments.—
Kinsey Crowley,
USA TODAY,
1 Jan. 2025
Noun
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Then, Trump went on to insult every man woman and child in the United States by making light of the impact of slavery on our nation’s history.—
Leonard Greene,
New York Daily News,
23 Feb. 2025
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Without mass death to keep the population in check, the herd would have to be culled by way of sterilization, slavery, or blood sport.—
Dan Piepenbring,
Harper's Magazine,
19 Feb. 2025
Noun
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They were clearly designed with the yoke steering wheel of the concept car Cyberster in mind, because with the regular round wheel of the production version, the two side screens are obscured by your hands.—
James Morris,
Fortune Europe,
6 Oct. 2024
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My great-grandmother in Georgia always wore a full-length dressing gown, while one of my Ohio grandmothers liked silky two-piece sets, and the other preferred flannel nightshirts with a rounded yoke that looked like something out of Little House on the Prairie.—
Clint Davis,
Southern Living,
21 Dec. 2024
Noun
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Passing for White to Escape Slavery Passing for white was an intentional strategy that enslaved people used to free themselves from bondage.—
JSTOR Daily,
JSTOR Daily,
20 Feb. 2025
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By the late 17th century, rulers had issued further decrees and orders urging officials in Spanish America to liberate Indigenous peoples still in bondage.—
Marc Ramirez,
USA TODAY,
6 Feb. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Serfdom.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/serfdom. Accessed 3 Mar. 2025.
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