Definitions

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

  • noun A slave or convict forced to ply an oar of a galley.
  • noun A person assigned to perform tedious or menial tasks; a drudge.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A person condemned for a crime to work at the oar on board a galley.
  • noun A compositor, jocosely regarded as bound to the “galley.”

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

  • noun A slave who rows in a galley.

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

  • noun a laborer who is obliged to do menial work
  • noun a slave condemned to row in a galley

Etymologies

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