thraldom

plural thraldoms · alternative obsolete thraldome · alternative thralldom

1. countableuncountableliterary or puristic; otherwise archaic; literary or puristic; otherwise archaicA state of bondage, slavery, or subjugation to another person.

   The wretched thraldom was over,—and what had it left?

   1864, “A Fast-Day at Foxden”, in Atlantic Monthly Journal, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2006

   2 more examples

   For ye into like thraldome me did throw, And kept from complishing the faith which I did owe.

   1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

   Beauteous Penthea […] is novv ſo yoak'd / To a moſt barbarous thraldome, miſery, / Affliction, that [s]he ſauors not humanity.

   c. 1625–1632 (date written), Iohn Ford [i.e., John Ford], The Broken Heart. A Tragedy. […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Hugh Beeston, […], published 1633, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, signatures B, verso – B2, recto

   Synonyms: thrall