thraldom
(ˈθrɔːldəm)
Forms: see next.
[f. next + -dom.]
The state or condition of being a thrall; bondage, servitude; captivity. a. lit.
| c 1205 Lay. 29156 Summe heo fluȝen to Irlonde..and þer wuneden þeouwe inne þraldome. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 2322 Driuen In-to ðraldom, euermor to liuen. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xviii. 103 And ȝowre Fraunchise, þat fre was fallen is in thraldome. 1450–1530 Myrr. our Ladye 331 Theyr delyuerance oute of the thraldome of Egypte. 1590 Webbe Trav. (Arb.) 14 In the midst of my thraldome in Turkie. 1617 Moryson Itin. ii. 25 Tyrone was among the Irish celebrated as the Deliverer of his Country from thraldome. 1756 Hume Hist. Eng. II. xli. 432 Elizabeth..would have been sure to detain him in perpetual thraldom. 1872 Yeats Techn. Hist. Comm. 165 Shoemakers were among the first to rescue themselves from the thraldom of the lords of the soil. |
b. fig.
| c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 139 Alle oðer daȝes of þe wike beoð to þreldome to þis dei. c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. II. 53 Þe moost þraldom and worst of alle is þe þraldom of synne. c 1450 tr. De Imitatione ii. xii. 58 To chastise þe body, to bring it in þraldom. 1561 T. Norton Calvin's Inst. i. xv. (1634) 74 This miserable estate whereunto man is now in thraldome. 1755 Young Centaur iii. Wks. 1757 IV. 170 This thraldom to their pleasures. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 461 She may deliver herself up again to the thraldom of pleasures and pains. |