the political, military, and social system in the Middle Ages, based on the holdingof lands in fief or fee and on the resulting relations between lord and vassal
Word origin
[1770–80]This word is first recorded in the period 1770–80. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: colonial, embed, jungle, lotto, shotgun
Examples of 'feudal system' in a sentence
feudal system
What's the alternative - a medieval feudal system?
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
The modern player has not been reared to accept a kind of feudal system.
Times, Sunday Times (2017)
It is naive to think that landlords operate in a feudal system, where they are landowners and have no liabilities.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
Abolishing the feudal system, he divided the empire into 36 provinces, governed by civilian and military powers that were overseen by an inspector.
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
Members of the sub-class were condemned by the old feudal system to unclean jobs associated with death and dirt.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
Financial engineering has created a rentier class, a modern feudal system, and the biggest beneficiaries of all that extra debt have been the bankers.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
Hundreds of manorial lordships, a relic of the medieval feudal system, change hands each year - most sold by 'old' families.
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
I suspect, however, that we are now winding the mileometer back to the feudal system.
Times, Sunday Times (2011)
It is too early to pronouce an easing of the feudal system, in which voters have often merely backed the party of their local chief.
Times, Sunday Times (2010)
Yet what's truly gripping is the account of crofting life under the brutal and unconscionable feudal system.