ˈgalley-slave
[f. galley n. + slave n.]
1. One who is condemned to work at the oar in a galley. Often fig. as a type of painful slavery.
| 1567 Turberv. All Things haue release, etc. 21 A gally-slave I seeme vnto my selfe to bee. 1626 Bacon Sylva §733 Gally Slaues, notwithstanding their Misery otherwise, are commonly Fat and Fleshy. 1683 Kennett tr. Erasm. on Folly 38 He is worse than a Gally-slave to his own lusts. 1701 Lond Gaz. No. 3715/1 The Galley-Slaves..had agreed together to throw their Officers and the Soldiers over-board. 1780 Cowper Table T. 327 Worse than the deeds of galley-slaves broke loose. 1836 Marryat Midsh. Easy xxxii, They..perceived the house surrounded by the galley-slaves. 1875 Helps Ess., Domestic Rule 39 We should not attempt to tie them up to their duties, like galley-slaves to their labour. |
† 2. Printing. (See quot.) Obs.
| 1683 Moxon Mech. Exerc. II. 362 The Compositers are Jocosely call'd Galley Slaves; Because allusively they are as it were bound to their Gallies. |