slave

noun

/sleɪv/

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a person who is owned by another person and is forced to work for them
- A former slave, he graduated from Clafflin University in South Carolina.
- She treated her daughter like a slave.
- a sex slave
- slave owners
- freed slaves
- Prisoners of war were regularly sold as slaves.
see also wage slave
Wordfinder
- allow
- emancipation
- freedom
- imprisonment
- independence
- liberty
- oppress
- restriction
- rule
- slave
Oxford Collocations Dictionary
adjective
- escaped
- fugitive
- runaway
- …
verb + slave
- become
- have
- keep
- …
slave + noun
- labour/labor
- labourer/laborer
- master
- …
preposition
- slave of
- slave to
See full entry
a person who is so strongly influenced by something that they cannot live without it, or cannot make their own decisions
- slave of something We are slaves of the motor car.
- slave to something Sue's a slave to fashion.
Oxford Collocations Dictionary
adjective
- escaped
- fugitive
- runaway
- …
verb + slave
- become
- have
- keep
- …
slave + noun
- labour/labor
- labourer/laborer
- master
- …
preposition
- slave of
- slave to
See full entry
(specialist) a device that is directly controlled by another one

Word OriginMiddle English: shortening of Old French esclave, equivalent of medieval Latin sclava (feminine) ‘Slavonic (captive)’: the Slavonic peoples had been reduced to a servile state by conquest in the 9th cent.

slave

verb

/sleɪv/

[intransitive]

Verb Forms

present simple I / you / we / they slave	/sleɪv/ /sleɪv/
he / she / it slaves	/sleɪvz/ /sleɪvz/
past simple slaved	/sleɪvd/ /sleɪvd/
past participle slaved	/sleɪvd/ /sleɪvd/
-ing form slaving	/ˈsleɪvɪŋ/ /ˈsleɪvɪŋ/

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slave (away) (at something) to work very hard
- I've been slaving away all day trying to get this work finished.
- I haven't got time to spend hours slaving over a hot stove (= doing a lot of cooking).
Word OriginMiddle English: shortening of Old French esclave, equivalent of medieval Latin sclava (feminine) ‘Slavonic (captive)’: the Slavonic peoples had been reduced to a servile state by conquest in the 9th cent.