bondage

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
bondage
    n 1: the state of being under the control of a force or
         influence or abstract power; "he was in bondage to fear:;
         "he sought release from his bondage to Satan"; "a self
         freed from the bondage of time"
    2: the state of being under the control of another person [syn:
       {bondage}, {slavery}, {thrall}, {thralldom}, {thraldom}]
    3: sexual practice that involves physically restraining (by
       cords or handcuffs) one of the partners
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Bondage \Bond"age\ (-[asl]j), n. [LL. bondagium. See {Bond}, a.]
   [1913 Webster]
   1. The state of being bound; condition of being under
      restraint; restraint of personal liberty by compulsion;
      involuntary servitude; slavery; captivity.
      [1913 Webster]

            The King, when he designed you for my guard,
            Resolved he would not make my bondage hard.
                                                  --Dryden.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Obligation; tie of duty.
      [1913 Webster]

            He must resolve by no means to be . . . brought
            under the bondage of observing oaths. --South.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. (Old Eng. Law) Villenage; tenure of land on condition of
      doing the meanest services for the owner.
      [1913 Webster]

   Syn: Thralldom; bond service; imprisonment.
        [1913 Webster]
    
from Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
Bondage
of Israel in Egypt (Ex. 2:23, 25; 5), which is called the "house
of bondage" (13:3; 20:2). This word is used also with reference
to the captivity in Babylon (Isa. 14:3), and the oppression of
the Persian king (Ezra 9:8, 9).
    
from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
31 Moby Thesaurus words for "bondage":
      absolutism, bond service, captivity, control, debt slavery,
      deprivation of freedom, disenfranchisement, disfranchisement,
      domination, enslavement, enthrallment, feudalism, feudality,
      helotism, helotry, indentureship, peonage, restraint, serfdom,
      serfhood, servility, servitude, slavery, subjection, subjugation,
      thrall, thralldom, tyranny, vassalage, villenage, yoke

    

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