SLAVE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does slave mean? 

• SLAVE (noun)
  The noun SLAVE has 3 senses:

1. a person who is owned by someone

2. someone who works as hard as a slave

3. someone entirely dominated by some influence or person

  Familiarity information: SLAVE used as a noun is uncommon.

• SLAVE (verb)
  The verb SLAVE has 1 sense:

1. work very hard, like a slave

  Familiarity information: SLAVE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SLAVE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who is owned by someone

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("slave" is a kind of...):

individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "slave"):

bondman; bondsman (a male slave)

bondmaid; bondswoman; bondwoman (a female slave)

bond servant (someone bound to labor without wages)

creature; puppet; tool (a person who is controlled by others and is used to perform unpleasant or dishonest tasks for someone else)

galley slave (a slave condemned to row in a galley)

Instance hyponyms:

Dred Scott; Scott (United States slave who sued for liberty after living in a non-slave state; caused the Supreme Court to declare the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional (1795?-1858))

Nat Turner; Turner (United States slave and insurrectionist who in 1831 led a rebellion of slaves in Virginia; he was captured and executed (1800-1831))

Denmark Vesey; Vesey (United States freed slave and insurrectionist in South Carolina who was involved in planning an uprising of slaves and was hanged (1767-1822))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Someone who works as hard as a slave

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

hard worker; slave; striver

Hypernyms ("slave" is a kind of...):

worker (a person who works at a specific occupation)

Derivation:

slave (work very hard, like a slave)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Someone entirely dominated by some influence or person

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Context example:

his mother was his abject slave

Hypernyms ("slave" is a kind of...):

individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)

• SLAVE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they slave    ... he / she / it slaves   
Past simple: slaved   
Past participle: slaved   
-ing form: slaving   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Work very hard, like a slave

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

break one's back; buckle down; knuckle down; slave

Hypernyms (to "slave" is one way to...):

do work; work (be employed)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

slave (someone who works as hard as a slave)

slavery (work done under harsh conditions for little or no pay)

 Context examples 

To this society all the rest of the people are slaves.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

"That will be easy," replied the man, "for when she knows you are in the country of the Winkies she will find you, and make you all her slaves."

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

And yet, if there was ever a slave trampled by the strong, that slave was his sister Gertrude.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

If I had been his wife, I could have been the slave of his caprices for a word of love a year.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I am ever her knight and slave.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I am king, said Ilsabill, and you are my slave; so go at once!

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

You have made a slave of yourself long enough.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Your mother must have been quite a slave to your education.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

But here she hoped too much; Miss Crawford was not the slave of opportunity.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

“And history tells of opportunities that came to the slaves who rose to the purple,” he answered grimly.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)