Definitions for: Servitude


[n] state of subjection to an owner or master or forced labor imposed as punishment; "penal servitude"



Webster (1913) Definition: Serv"i*tude, n. [L. servitudo: cf. F. servitude.]
1. The state of voluntary or compulsory subjection to a
master; the condition of being bound to service; the
condition of a slave; slavery; bondage; hence, a state of
slavish dependence.

You would have sold your king to slaughter, His
princes and his peers to servitude. --Shak.

A splendid servitude; . . . for he that rises up
early, and goe? to bed late, only to receive
addresses, is really as much abridged in his freedom
as he that waits to present one. --South.

2. Servants, collectively. [Obs.]

After him a cumbrous train Of herds and flocks, and
numerous servitude. --Milton.

3. (Law) A right whereby one thing is subject to another
thing or person for use or convenience, contrary to the
common right.

Note: The object of a servitude is either to suffer something
to be done by another, or to omit to do something, with
respect to a thing. The easements of the English
correspond in some respects with the servitudes of the
Roman law. Both terms are used by common law writers,
and often indiscriminately. The former, however, rather
indicates the right enjoyed, and the latter the burden
imposed. --Ayliffe. Erskine. E. Washburn.

Penal servitude. See under Penal.

Personal servitude (Law), that which arises when the use of
a thing is granted as a real right to a particular
individual other than the proprietor.

Predial servitude (Law), that which one estate owes to
another estate. When it related to lands, vineyards,
gardens, or the like, it is called rural; when it related
to houses and buildings, it is called urban.

See Also: bondage, serfdom, serfhood, slavery, thraldom, thrall, thralldom, vassalage, villainage, villeinage

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