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Thrall vs Serf - What's the difference?

thrall | serf |

As nouns the difference between thrall and serf

is that thrall is one who is enslaved or under mind control while serf is a partially free peasant of a low hereditary class, slavishly attached to the land owned by a feudal lord and required to perform labour, enjoying minimal legal or customary rights.

As a verb thrall

is to make a thrall.

thrall

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • One who is enslaved or under mind control.
  • * 14th century , ,
  • My servant, which that is my thrall by right
  • * 1915 , ,
  • And there were household slaves in golden collars that burned of a plenty there with her, and nine female thralls , and eight male slaves of the Angles that were of gentle birth and battle-captured.
  • (uncountable) The state of being under the control of another person.
  • * 1864 , ,
  • Go: release him from the thrall of Hautia.
  • * 1889 , ,
  • [Y]our friend, John Edward, is at the other end of the room with his whole soul held in thrall by photographs of other people's relatives.
  • * 1911 , ,
  • In her brain she was dimly conscious of balancing, or striving to balance, the abject shame which had him now in thrall against the one compelling act of courage which had flung him grandly and madly on to the point of danger.
  • A shelf; a stand for barrels, etc.
  • References

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make a thrall.
  • serf

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A partially free peasant of a low hereditary class, slavishly attached to the land owned by a feudal lord and required to perform labour, enjoying minimal legal or customary rights.
  • A similar agricultural labourer in 18th and 19th century Europe.
  • (strategy games) A worker unit.
  • Synonyms

    * (strategy games) peasant, peon, villager

    Derived terms

    * serfage * serfdom * serfhood * serfish * serfism

    See also

    * slave

    Anagrams

    * ----