enslave, v.
(ɛnˈsleɪv)
Also 7–8 inslave.
[f. en-1 + slave.]
1. trans. To reduce to slavery; to make a slave of. Also absol.
| 1656 Cowley Davideis ii. (1710) I. 348 Enslav'd, and sold to Ashur by his Sins. 1793 Blackstone Comm. (ed. 12) 539 Much less can it give a right to kill, torture, abuse, plunder, or even to enslave, an enemy, when the war is over. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. I. 277 Prevent them from..enslaving their brethren, of whatever complexion. 1867 Pearson Hist. Eng. I. 50 The ungrateful freedman might be enslaved again. 1878 R. B. Smith Carthage 348 Scipio..had moved forward from his head quarters at Tunis, plundering and enslaving as he went. |
2. transf. and
fig. a. To reduce to political ‘slavery’, deprive of political freedom.
| α 1643 Prynne Treachery & Disloy. Papists ii. 43 (R.) Corrupt publicke officers and judges of late times..have..endeavoured to enslave both us and our posterities. 1660 R. Coke Justice Vind. 18 A nation may enslave it self by its too much wit. 1775 Johnson Tax. no Tyr. 64 May with the same army enslave us. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 297 Such an army..was not very likely to enslave five millions of Englishmen. 1877 Mrs. Oliphant Makers Flor. x. 241 She [Florence] was enslaved, she, once the freest of the free. |
| β 1700 Dryden Fables, Cock & Fox 384 Joseph..Who by a dream inslav'd th' Egyptian land. 1767 T. Hutchinson Hist. Prov. Mass. iv. 425 Confederating..to inslave the Dutch. |
b. In moral or intellectual sense: To render (a person) a ‘slave’ to passion, habit, superstition, etc.
| α c 1645 Howell Lett. iii. xxi, Who doth enslave himself too strictly to words. 1651 Baxter Inf. Bapt. 28 Those whose consciences are not wholly enslaved to their fancies. 1738 Wesley Hymn, From whence these dire Portents around vi, Let Sin no more my Soul enslave! 1821 Shelley Prometh. Unb. ii. iv. 110 All spirits are enslaved which serve things evil. 1825 Lytton Zicci 24, I am enslaved by her beauty. 1876 Green Short Hist. vi. §5 (1882) 315 Luther declared man to be utterly enslaved by original sin. 1884 Church Bacon ix. 223 His Latin, without enslaving itself to Ciceronian types..is singularly forcible and expressive. |
| β 1665 Boyle Occas. Refl. iv. viii. (1675) 218 To which unbridl'd Passions hurry the criminally unhappy Persons they have Inslav'd. 1705 Stanhope Paraphr. II. 301 Pleasure inslaves us by often indulging. 1746 Hurd Remarks Weston's Enquiry (R.), Inslaved to the tenets of a conceited philosophy. |