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slave

  • noun 1 historical a person who is the legal property of another and is forced to obey them. 2 a person who is excessively dependent upon or controlled by something: a slave to fashion.

  • verb work excessively hard.

  — ORIGIN Old French esclave, from Latin sclava ‘Slavonic captive’: the Slavonic peoples had been reduced to a servile state by conquest in the 9th century.

 

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