Webster's English Dictionary

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servitude

ser.vi.tude \'s*r-v*-.t(y)u:d\ n [ME, fr. MF, fr. L servitudo slavery, fr. 
   servus slave] 1: the state of subjection to another that constitutes or 
   resembles slavery  or serfdom 2: a right by which something (as a piece of 
   land) owned by one person is s ubject to a specified use or enjoyment by 
   anotherg subject to a master. SERVITUDE is chiefly rhetorical and imprecise 
   in use; it implies in general lack of liberty to do as one pleases, 
   specifically lack of freedom to determine one's course of action and 
   conditions of living; SLAVERY implies subjection to a master who owns one's 
   person and may treat one as property; BONDAGE implies a state of being 
   bound in law or by physical restraint to a state of complete subjection to 
   the will of another SYN syn SERVITUDE, SLAVERY, BONDAGE mean the state of 
   bein