slaves 1 of 2

noun

plural of slave
1
as in servants
a person who is considered the property of another person many American slaves reached freedom in the North through the network known as the Underground Railroad

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in laborers
a person who does very hard or dull work unappreciated office slaves who perform the necessary but tedious task of filing paperwork

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

slaves

2 of 2

verb

present tense third-person singular of slave
as in labors
to devote serious and sustained effort slaving over a hot stove

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of slaves
Noun
New York Life Insurance Company, Aetna Life Insurance Company and American International Group, known as AIG, were some of the businesses that listed previously disclosed ties to slaves and slaveholders. — Stephen Hobbs, Sacbee.com, 28 Aug. 2026 The Christiana Riot, also known as the Christiana Resistance, occurred in Christiana, Pennsylvania, where free Black people and escaped slaves successfully resisted a federal marshal’s raid to capture four fugitive slaves. — USA Today, 25 Aug. 2026 Make the first right on the man who permitted the heads of rebelling slaves to be put on stakes and spread across the city in order to prevent the others from getting any ideas. — Terry Gross, NPR, 14 Aug. 2026 There were a lot of stories about the richer people that went away amid all the political problems, and the people working for them, the descendants of the slaves. — Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 13 Aug. 2026 Very few think that America was truly founded when the first slaves arrived in 1619 and that patriotic holidays are oppressive. — David Weigel, semafor.com, 12 Aug. 2026 Washington himself had hundreds of slaves at his home and plantation in Virginia. — Jacqui Palumbo, CNN Money, 11 Aug. 2026 The Greeks branded their slaves; the Romans tattooed their gladiators. — Jill Lepore, New Yorker, 10 Aug. 2026 Since the 1700s, Jamaica’s populace has been dominated by the descendants of African slaves. — Literary Hub, 5 Aug. 2026
Verb
Things are equally akilter in his family’s home, with his mother now sitting on the couch watching TV while his father slaves away in the kitchen. — Frank Scheck, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for slaves
  1. servants
  2. laborers
  3. labors
  4. bondmen
  5. workers
  6. struggles
  7. strives
  8. works
Noun
  • Raised by servants and educated by an uncle, Sade was a spoiled child with a temper and a taste for rebellion.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 12 Aug. 2026
  • Protecting the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program is essential to ensuring America can continue recruiting and retaining the public servants our communities depend on.
    — Verna L. Williams, Fortune, 10 Aug. 2026
Definition of servants
Noun
  • Activists suspect that Flock’s data has been used to plan immigration raids, which frequently target hardware store parking lots where migrant day-laborers often wait for work.
    — Jack Crosbie, Rolling Stone, 31 Aug. 2026
  • The White miners drove hundreds of other Chinese laborers out of the town.
    — Karissa Waddick, USA Today, 27 Aug. 2026
Definition of laborers
Verb
  • Thoroughly unimpressed by her suburban idyll, and evidently unmoved by her responsibilities as wife and mother, Denise labors in her basement on a novel whose protagonist wishes to forsake her family for a life in New York.
    — Peter Tonguette, The Washington Examiner, 22 Aug. 2026
  • Every man and woman who labors in the construction industry deserves that.
    — Tim Dunn, Boston Herald, 5 Mar. 2026
Definition of labors
Noun
  • That is the standard set for bringing weapons and cellphones into a secure area, safeguarding department property, monitoring the radio, misusing department letterhead, badges or insignia, secondary employment violations, and recommending bondsmen or attorneys to inmates.
    — Shelly Bradbury, Denver Post, 29 May 2026
  • Plus, bail bondsmen are the ultimate local rent seekers.
    — Dan Gooding Gabe Whisnant, MSNBC Newsweek, 25 Aug. 2025
Definition of bondmen
Noun
  • Their crabs are steamed, frozen and packed into boxes to be shipped to Sri Lanka, where workers remove the meat by hand.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 2 Sep. 2026
  • The payrolls processing firm said firms added 38,000 workers, fewer than the upwardly revised 46,000 in July and below the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 47,000.
    — Jeff Cox, CNBC, 2 Sep. 2026
Definition of workers
Verb
  • Deep in the Pyrenees mountains, a young man, Miquel, struggles in the wake of his mother’s death in a snowstorm — a tragic event that was at the center of Tóibín’s 2006 novella, A Long Winter.
    — Mary Lawrence Ware, semafor.com, 3 Sep. 2026
  • Starring Weber Yang and Chang Shih Ying (Yen And Ai-Lee), the film depicts a grieving family that struggles to recover from a fragile relationship after an unexpected tragic accident.
    — Liz Shackleton, Deadline, 1 Sep. 2026
Definition of struggles
Verb
  • This is all while Venus in Libra strives for justice, balance, cooperation and relationships that feel mutually considerate.
    — Valerie Mesa, PEOPLE, 24 Aug. 2026
  • Chesney called Martin an unbelievable leader and said that his energy will give people a window into what his program strives to look like.
    — Connor Dullinger, Los Angeles Times, 18 Aug. 2026
Definition of strives
Verb
  • If the model works, Hund says Rare Ventures will expand to include more diseases and potentially fund more treatments.
    — Brad Quick, CNBC, 28 Aug. 2026
  • Related Stories The film follows Di Marco’s titular character, a disabled young adult who works as a dominant at a fetish house.
    — Rafa Sales Ross, Variety, 28 Aug. 2026
Definition of works

Browse Nearby Words

slavery
slaves
slaves (for)
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Cite this Entry

“Slaves.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/slaves. Accessed 5 Sep. 2026.

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