1A legal agreement, contract, or document.

1. 1.1historical A deed or contract of which copies were made for the contracting parties with the edges indented for identification and to prevent forgery.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • The two halves of the indenture, preserved in the Records Office of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, show that Shakespeare was represented by his brother Gilbert.
   • Similarly, violations of bondholder rights by persons other than the company generally will not result in a breach of the bond indenture, since these persons are not party to the indenture.
   • At the dawn of the twentieth-century, baby farms provoked sensation, newspapers advertised babies, and indentures and deeds were still used to exchange children.
   • The name Sheldon appears alongside those of Shakespeare's friends in Warwickshire indentures and conveyances, and in the medical casebook of Shakespeare's son-in-law.
   • By an indenture of the same date executed by them, the Somerset Estate was appointed and transferred to the 4th Duke.
2. 1.2 A formal list, certificate, or inventory.
   indentures recording the number of 1377 taxpayers

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Many of the local indentures of the fifteenth century survive too; at first glance they seem informative, but can be misleading as to electoral method.
   • This can be expressed as a ratio or as the conversion price, and is specified in the indenture along with other provisions.
   • The creditors said that the bond indenture allowed a foreclosure on the company's assets in lieu of repayment.
   • The rights of bondholders are determined differently because a bond agreement, or indenture, represents a contract between the issuer and the bondholder.
   • The indenture conveying these rights was left in the hands of George Holdrege of the Burlington railroad.
   • The indenture system was based on the assumption that the owner of an indenture owned a human property, and the 1818 Constitution upheld the standing validity of all contracts, including indentures.
   • The contractual remedy provided for in the trust indenture did not preclude alternative relief being granted under the oppression remedy.
3. 1.3 An agreement binding an apprentice to a master.
   the 30 apprentices have received their indentures on completion of their training

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Apprentices' indentures issued by the Edinburgh College of Surgeons in the 1720s forbad trainees to exhume the dead - which suggests that they had been doing so.
   • After Xavier bought out my indentures, I was presented with a number of careers.
   • We note that in The Parish of St Pancras case an attorney's clerk, articled by indenture, was held to be an apprentice and to gain a settlement as such for poor law purposes.
   • The company employing him went bankrupt, his indentures were cancelled and he was now totally without any future.
   • Shakespeare was married at the age of 19 to Anne Hathaway, probably before his indenture to the butcher was over.
   • His medical training began in 1820 with his indenture to a local surgeon.
   • Fortunately he was literate and his indenture involved legal training.
   • Paddy can be clever and quick-witted enough when presented with an opportunity to shirk the duties set forth in his indentures, but otherwise he's as weak-minded as a fish.
   • Apprenticeship indentures from the 1880s make interesting reading.
4. 1.4mass noun The state of being bound to service by an indenture.
   the bracelet on his wrist represented his indenture to his master

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Today, we are shocked when young children are put to work for pennies a day in India, or China, in conditions of indenture that approximate slavery.
   • This was referred to as ‘adoption’ and was distinct from binding them to labor for a master under indenture.
   • Even girls without a good relationship with their parents forgave them and accepted their indenture as a filial duty.
   • The indenture records the terms on which a man was engaged to serve his lord; it would normally specify his wages and, if it was a long-service contract, his retaining fee.
   • The second difference between the Han and aboriginal indentured girls is the family members involved in their indenture.
   • The lord could not seize the laborer's property, sell the indenture to a third party, or sell the laborer into slavery.
   • Parents also begged the girls not to reveal the parents' involvement in the indenture to the police, and accused the girls of being unfilial if they did.
5. 1.5historical A contract by which a person agreed to work for a set period for a landowner in a British colony in exchange for passage to the colony.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • Moreover, the abrogation of indenture contracts in 1900 eliminated the condition under which many Japanese immigrated to this country.
   • This indenture system, which had satisfied the planter aristocracy's demand for workers, was abolished in British Guiana in 1917.
   • Labour drawn from a reserve became regulated through systems of migration where migrants were employed on contracts known as indentures.
   • When their terms of indenture were over, some moved to Johannesburg and Cape Town, but most remained in the eastern region.
   • More would have made the trans-Atlantic voyage, but poverty had forced many into debt or indenture.
   • Once used to bring workers to the American and West Indian colonies, indentures exchanged a fixed period of labour for transportation, payment, food, and housing.
   • Servitude became a central labor institution in early English America: Between one-half and two-thirds of all white immigrants to the British colonies arrived under indenture.

Bind (someone) by an indenture as an apprentice or labourer.