Category:Bondage

Bond"age, n. Etym: [LL. bondagium. See Bond, a.]

1. The state of being bound; condition of being under restraint; restraint of personal liberty by compulsion; involuntary servitude; slavery; captivity. The King, when he designed you for my guard, Resolved he would not make my bondage hard. Dryden.

2. Obligation; tie of duty. He must resolve by no means to be. . . brought under the bondage of onserving oaths. South.

3. (Old Eng. Law)

Defn: Villenage; tenure of land on condition of doing the meanest services for the owner.

Syn. -- Thralldom; bond service; imprisonment.

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Bondage - Of Israel in Egypt (Exodus 2:23, Exodus 2:25; Exodus 5), which is called the "house of bondage" (Exodus 13:3; Exodus 20:2). This word is used also with reference to the captivity in Babylon (Isaiah 14:3), and the oppression of the Persian king (Ezra 9:8 - 9:9).