serfdom

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of serfdom That book, Caliban and the Witch, traces the emergence of witch hunts throughout medieval Western Europe amid the transition from serfdom to proto-capitalism. Hazlitt, 4 Sep. 2024 Johnson envisioned a postwar order in which former slaves would transition into permanent serfdom, destined for labor but no independent economic life and no place in politics. David W. Blight, Foreign Affairs, 8 Dec. 2020 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 See All Example Sentences for serfdom
Recent Examples of Synonyms for serfdom
Noun
  • Drawing on quotations from Karl Marx, a Lincoln enthusiast, Stewart argues that Lincoln was essentially the first Marxist President: embracing a view of labor not far from Marx’s own, and opposing the peonage of working people in all its forms.
    Adam Gopnik, New Yorker, 21 Apr. 2025
  • 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
Noun
  • Wilson responded, first disagreeing with Lackey’s assessment of the association between involuntary servitude in prisons and slavery.
    Jenavieve Hatch, Sacbee.com, 26 Mar. 2025
  • Broken shackles lie underneath the statue’s drapery, to symbolize the end of all types of servitude and oppression.
    Jack Guy, CNN, 18 Mar. 2025
Noun
  • Plan an off-season visit for late July and early August to coincide with Antigua's nearly two-week-long carnival, which celebrates the end of slavery.
    Carley Rojas Avila, Travel + Leisure, 3 May 2025
  • Others online pointed out that Lively once boasted about her and husband Ryan Reynolds getting married in 2012 on a Southern plantation with a history of slavery.
    Martha Ross, Mercury News, 28 Apr. 2025
Noun
  • The use of premium materials such as aluminum and magnesium in the headphones’ yoke brings a useful combination of lightness and robustness.
    Mark Sparrow, Forbes.com, 26 Mar. 2025
  • There is also a yoke instead of a steering wheel, part of the car’s steer-by-wire system, which is intended to improve maneuverability by varying the car’s steering response at different speeds.
    Erik Shilling, Robb Report, 12 Mar. 2025
Noun
  • Gorsuch calls out 'bondage' in children’s LGBTQ storybook 3.
    FOXNews.com, FOXNews.com, 24 Apr. 2025
  • Lawler: Long before Lord Dunmore promised emancipation to those enslaved, those in bondage already were fleeing to British lines.
    Ari Daniel, Smithsonian Magazine, 17 Apr. 2025

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Serfdom.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/serfdom. Accessed 12 May. 2025.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!