Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A male bondservant.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In old English law, a villein, or tenant in villeinage.
  • noun A man slave, or a man bound to service without wages. Also improperly written bondsman.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A man slave, or one bound to service without wages.
  • noun (Old Eng. Law) A villain, or tenant in villenage.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A man who is bound in servitude; a slave or serf.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a male bound to serve without wages
  • noun a male slave

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from bonde, serf; see bondage.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

bond +‎ -man

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Examples

  • "And what would you call the bondman whose master had generously paid his debt, and who refused to accept that generosity, but insisted on working it out himself, though the debt was more than he could discharge by the work of a thousand years?"

    One Snowy Night Long ago at Oxford Emily Sarah Holt 1864

  • Page 12 non-slaveholding white killed a negro, payment of the price of the bondman was his acquittance; in no case was imprisonment or the death penalty inflicted.

    The American Negro: What He Was, What He Is, and What He May Become: A Critical and Practical Discussion 1901

  • The next morning broke silently, and with the rising of the sun the plantation bell or the conch called the bondman and bondwoman into the cane-fields.

    The Flower of the Chapdelaines George Washington Cable 1884

  • Now, the term here translated "bondman" is the generic עֶבֶד, _evedh_, elsewhere translated "servant," and therefore should have been thus translated here, unless a different rendering is required by the context.

    Is Slavery Sanctioned by the Bible? Isaac Allen

  • If the servant was a slave, because he was called by the Hebrew word rendered "bondman," then was Jacob a slave also: -- and even still greater absurdities could be deduced from the position.

    The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 1 of 4 American Anti-Slavery Society

  • If the servant was a slave, because he was called by the Hebrew word rendered "bondman," then was Jacob a slave also: -- and even still greater absurdities could be deduced from the position.

    The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus American Anti-Slavery Society

  • "bondman" used in the Mosaic law means chattel slavery; 2.

    Is Slavery Sanctioned by the Bible? Isaac Allen

  • "bondman," one contracting service for a term of years; שָּׂכִיר,

    Is Slavery Sanctioned by the Bible? Isaac Allen

  • He at once captivated my imagination, and I have been ever since his loving bondman.

    American Icons 2006

  • He at once captivated my imagination, and I have been ever since his loving bondman.

    American Icons Henry James Sr. 2006

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