Definitions

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

  • noun Thraldom.

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

  • noun A state of bondage, slavery, or subjugation to another person.

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

  • noun the state of being under the control of another person

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From thrall +‎ -dom, from early Middle English (late 12th century) þrældome. Late Old English þræl is a loan from Old Norse þræll.

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Examples

  • I always end up in this kind of thralldom to my characters.

    A Conversation with Carol Shields 2010

  • The subject of women held in thralldom to men by mysterious powers came to mind the other day when I read the story of Elizabeth Smart, author of the prose poem or the poetic novella By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept, a perfervid retelling of her infatuation and affair with George Granville Barker, a poet who had achieved success at the age of 18.

    How to Hypnotize Women Con Chapman 2011

  • Conversely, they can ponder with you what is not even contemplated by District residents because of their thralldom to the Congressional veto.

    Egypt uprising should inspire D.C. voting rights activists, Nader says Mike DeBonis 2011

  • The butterfly tattoo on her left cheek caught my eye, a visible reminder of her thralldom.

    Crossed J.F. Lewis 2011

  • The butterfly tattoo on her left cheek caught my eye, a visible reminder of her thralldom.

    Crossed J.F. Lewis 2011

  • He used to have a seventh thrall, an ex-stripper named Ebony, but Eric packed her and her two kids up and sent them to live out at Orchard Lake with the werewolves, then released her from thralldom.

    Crossed J.F. Lewis 2011

  • This book is such a perfect send-up of the primary Heinlein themes, and such a jaundiced/humorous take on where the genre's thralldom to Heinlein has taken the field that it is practically a manifesto and declaration of independence for those who are critical of "traditional" SF.

    MIND MELD: The Hugo Awards - Success at Picking the Best, How Well it Represents the Genre, 2009 Predictions & Overlooked Titles 2009

  • Alone and agonizingly thirsty, the boy's thoughts travel through his violent past: his father's gruesome murder, his twin sister's abduction, his own thralldom to gangster culture: Everything I remember is too vivid.

    The Book That Broke the Color Line Meghan Cox Gurdon 2012

  • He used to have a seventh thrall, an ex-stripper named Ebony, but Eric packed her and her two kids up and sent them to live out at Orchard Lake with the werewolves, then released her from thralldom.

    Crossed J.F. Lewis 2011

  • Years later, he described "a state of thralldom ... experiencing tremors day and night."

    'The Pop Revolution' 2010

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