indentured
Definition
Adjective: - Bound by a formal contract or agreement: Describes a person who is legally obligated to work for another for a specific period, typically to repay a debt or learn a trade. This often implies a historical context of servitude.
Usage and Examples
- Adjective:
- He arrived in the colony as an indentured servant. (He arrived under a contract that bound him to work for a master for a set number of years.)
- The system relied on indentured labor to build the infrastructure. (The system used workers who were legally contracted for a term of service.)
Advanced Usage
- "to be indentured to someone": to be formally contracted to serve a specific person or employer.
- Young apprentices were often indentured to master craftsmen for seven years.
- Used as a past participle verb form in passive constructions.
- She was indentured at the age of fourteen to work as a housemaid.
Variants and Related Words
- Indenture (noun): The formal contract or agreement itself that binds a person.
- He signed an indenture to work on the plantation for five years.
- Indenture (verb): To bind someone by such a contract.
- The company would indenture young workers from overseas.
Synonyms
- Contracted: Bound by a mutual agreement.
- Bound: Obligated, often by a legal or moral tie.
- Apprenticed: Bound to a master to learn a trade (a specific type of indenture).
Antonyms
- Free: Not under the control or in the service of another.
- Emancipated: Freed from legal, social, or political restrictions.
Related Phrases
- Indentured servitude: The state or period of being an indentured servant.
- Indentured servitude was a common way for Europeans to immigrate to the American colonies in the 17th century.
Adjective
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bound by contract
