▪ I. bondage
(ˈbɒndɪdʒ)
Also 5 bondeage, 6–7 boundage.
[ME. bondage, a. AF. bondage, or ad. Anglo-L. bondagium, f. bond n.2 (in AF. bond, bonde, in Anglo-L. bondus) + -age. The natural English formation was bondehede, or bondescipe, bondship. In later times associated in thought with bond n.1, as of a man ‘in bonds’, or constrained by a bond: see esp. senses 2 c, 3.]
† 1. The tenure of a bonde or bond after the Norman Conquest; tenure in villenage; the service rendered by a bonde. Obs.
| [? a 1300 Leges Baron. Scot. lvi. 3 Si autem nativi domino suo negent nativitatem suam sive Bondagium, tunc attachiabuntur per Ministros Domini Regis. 1381 Charter of Rich. II in Walsingham 254 (Du Cange) Et eorum quemlibet ab omni bondagio exuimus, et quietos facimus. Ibid. 270 Quod nulla acra terræ quae in Bondagio vel servitio tenebit, altius quam ad 4 denarios haberetur.] 1651 Proc. Parliament No. 126. 1951 Set free from their former dependencies and bondage services & shall be admitted as Tenants, Freeholders. |
b. Sc. ‘Services due by a tenant to the proprietor, or by a cottager [rather cotter] to the farmer.’ Jam. c. esp. The service of the bondager.
(These are relics of sense 1 surviving to modern times in Scotland and adjacent parts of England.)
| 1818 Edin. Mag. Aug. 126–7 (Jam.) The farmer..holds his farm from the landlord..for payment of a certain sum of money;—a certain number of days' work with his horses, carts, and men..The very name that this service gets here, bondage, indicates the light in which it is viewed by the tenantry. 1845 New Statist. Acc. Scotl. XII. 1004 What was termed bondages to the heritor, which embraced the labour of man and beast, long and short carriages, and the yearly payment of poultry, and in some cases of sheep, butter and tallow, are now abolished. |
| c. 1872 E. Robertson Hist. Ess. 99 The bondage-system, entailing..the necessity of finding extra labour in field work. 1872 J. Thomson Peter Plough 8 The bothy system there, like our bondage system here, is not as it should be. Mod. The hind's daughter does the bondage work for the house. |
† d. Arbitrary or tyrannical impost. Obs.
| c 1650 2nd Narr. late Parl. in Select. Harl. Misc. (1793) 416 Appearing and standing..for right and freedom, against the bondages, which, contrary to engagements, covenants and promises, were put upon the good people of this land. |
2. The position or condition of a serf or slave; servitude, serfdom, slavery.
| 1330 R. Brunne Chron. 71 In þat bondage, þat brouht was ouer þe se, Now ere þei in seruage fulle fele þat or was fre. 1398 Barth. De P.R. vi. xv. (1495) 199 Some seruauntes ben bonde, and bore in bondage. 1460 J. Capgrave Chron. 30 That wretchid bondage of the Hebrew puple in Egipt. 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, i. iii. 89 Neuer did Captiue with a freer heart, Cast off his chaines of bondage. 1671 Milton Samson 270 What more oft in Nations grown corrupt, And by their vices brought to servitude, Than to love Bondage more than Liberty. 1830 Mackintosh Eth. Philos. Wks. 1846 I. 52 Those who purchased them, nor those who hold them in bondage. |
† b. Applied to the condition of being bound apprentice. (Cf. service, servitude.) Obs.
| a 1577 Sir T. Smith Commw. Eng. iii. x. (1609) 129 Another kind of seruitude or bondage is vsed in England..which is called apprenticehood. |
c. transf. The condition of being bound or tied up; that which binds. poet.
| 1597 Shakes. Lover's Compl. 34 Some [hair] in her threaden fillet still did bide, And true to bondage would not break from thence. 1611 ― Cymb. v. v. 306 Cym. Binde the Offender..Bel. Let his Armes alone, They were not borne for bondage. 1728 Thomson Spring 649 The callow young Warmed and expanded into perfect life, Their brittle bondage break. |
d. Sado-masochism of a sexual nature involving the binding of one partner with rope, handcuffs, or the like. Also attrib.
| 1966 Guardian 24 Mar. 14/2 ‘Spankers’ and ‘bondage’ books, the cognoscenti's terms for books devoted to sexual sadism and masochism. 1976 Toronto Star 15 May a1/4 A police spokesman said the seized magazines showed explicit pictures of whipping, bondage and other acts of sexual violence. 1980 J. O'Faolain No Country for Young Men vii. 156 Cards in London tobacconist's windows..: discipline and bondage: severe Swedish lessons. 1985 Listener 28 Feb. 26/3 She frequented sex shows, public baths, rough gay bars, doss-houses, bondage houses. |
e. Fashion. Used attrib. to designate a style of clothing favoured by punks or punk rockers (see punk n.3 4 d, punk rock), in which much use is made of black leather, shackled or trimmed with chains, thongs, etc.
| 1980 Daily Mirror 9 Apr. 17/1 They think if you put on a pair of bondage trousers you're a Punk. 1984 J. Nunn Fashion in Costume 1200–1980 212 The pop music scene continued to stimulate..the punk style, a deliberately anarchic and ill-assorted assemblage of garments..including bondage trousers (the legs linked by straps across the back), fake leopardskin..and safety pins. 1986 Times 13 Feb. 15/2 Kevin, a Mohican-haired under-caretaker, clonking keys along with his bondage gear. 1986 City Limits 10 Apr. 14 What about Blue's fetishistic, super-realist paintings of Candy, in leather bondage gear? |
3. fig. Subjection to some bond, binding power, influence, or obligation.
| a 1450 Knt. de la Tour (1868) 55 One synne puttithe her..into this seruage and bondage. 1540 Coverdale Old Faith Prol. (1844) 4 The bondage of sin and vice. 1651 Calderwood Hist. Kirk (1843) II. 21 Subject to death, and to the boundage of the same. a 1716 South (J.) To be brought under the bondage of observing oaths. 1866 Argyll Reign Law vii. (ed. 4) 362 The bondage under which all true Science lies to fact. |
† b. Binding force, obligation. Obs.
| 1611 Shakes. Cymb. ii. iv. 111 The Vowes of Women, Of no more bondage be, to where they are made, Then they are to their Vertues. |
▪ II. bondage, v. Obs. or arch.
(ˈbɒndɪdʒ)
[f. prec. n.]
trans. To reduce to bondage, to enslave.
| 1611 Heywood Gold. Age iv. i. Wks. 1874 III. 59 To bondage me that am a princesse free. 1803 J. Bristed Pedest. Tour I. 354 Shackling and bondaging the better sex. |