as in peonage
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Recent Examples of serfdom
As the Big Three continue to drive down the road to serfdom, car production will continue in the United States.
—
The Editors, National Review, 18 Sep. 2023
Following Mexico's independence in 1821, a small landowning elite replaced the colonial rulers, and most of the farmers (except those who joined farming collectives) transitioned from slavery to serfdom.
—Travel + Leisure Editors, Travel + Leisure, 22 June 2023
The pandemic decreased competition among laborers, raising wages and putting the oppressive system of serfdom in a death spiral.
—Cody Cassidy, Smithsonian Magazine, 13 June 2023
All designed to warn us that behind the veneer of jurisprudential poise and Middle American decency, Amy Coney Barrett is some theocratic medievalist monster, primed to send women back to the kitchen, African-Americans back to the plantations, and the country back to serfdom.
—Gerard Baker, WSJ, 19 Oct. 2020
See All Example Sentences for serfdom
The Editors, National Review, 18 Sep. 2023
Following Mexico's independence in 1821, a small landowning elite replaced the colonial rulers, and most of the farmers (except those who joined farming collectives) transitioned from slavery to serfdom.
—Travel + Leisure Editors, Travel + Leisure, 22 June 2023
The pandemic decreased competition among laborers, raising wages and putting the oppressive system of serfdom in a death spiral.
—Cody Cassidy, Smithsonian Magazine, 13 June 2023
All designed to warn us that behind the veneer of jurisprudential poise and Middle American decency, Amy Coney Barrett is some theocratic medievalist monster, primed to send women back to the kitchen, African-Americans back to the plantations, and the country back to serfdom.
—Gerard Baker, WSJ, 19 Oct. 2020
See All Example Sentences for serfdom
Recent Examples of Synonyms for serfdom
Noun
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The Black community’s relationship with growing food is colored by exploitive practices, from slavery to sharecropping, tenant farming and peonage, or debt servitude.—
Lyndsay C. Green,
Detroit Free Press,
27 Nov. 2024
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Further, this much control over the autonomy of an athlete’s rights to their own NIL rights combined with a financial obligation could also trigger scrutiny under the 13th Amendment, which, in addition to abolishing slavery, placed prohibitions on peonage (i.e., working against your will).—
Joe Sabin,
Forbes,
10 Oct. 2024
Noun
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These were the years in which capitalism shed its pitiless light on the absurd British soul, with its deep striations of caste and station, its postcolonial taint, most of all its perverted emotional core, full of love and loathing for its own extremes of domination and servitude.—
Rachel Cusk,
Harper's Magazine,
19 Feb. 2025
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Advertisement California Nevada just banned ‘slavery and involuntary servitude’ in prisons.—
Anabel Sosa,
Los Angeles Times,
18 Jan. 2025
Noun
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But opposition to the expansion of slavery was the unifying principle of the young Republican Party.—
Jeffrey Schmitt,
The Conversation,
28 Feb. 2025
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Until right before the Civil War, the politics of statehood closely tracked the nation's antebellum divide over slavery.—
Geoffrey Skelley,
ABC News,
26 Feb. 2025
Noun
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Art critic Eva Diaz, writing for ArtReview, says that Of the ‘creative’ pursuits, architecture is among the most dependent on big piles of capital in order to get its work off the ground: patronage is a constitutive yoke of the profession.—
Matt Shaw,
Forbes,
28 Feb. 2025
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Instead of a traditional wheel, the Filante Record 2025 has a sci-fi-style yoke with protruding handles on each side that use steer-by-wire and brake-by-wire systems to control steering, stopping, and acceleration.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
6 Feb. 2025
Noun
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Passing for White to Escape Slavery Passing for white was an intentional strategy that enslaved people used to free themselves from bondage.—
JSTOR Daily,
JSTOR Daily,
20 Feb. 2025
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By the late 17th century, rulers had issued further decrees and orders urging officials in Spanish America to liberate Indigenous peoples still in bondage.—
Marc Ramirez,
USA TODAY,
6 Feb. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Serfdom.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/serfdom. Accessed 13 Mar. 2025.
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