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peonage
This term carries a heavy connotation of systemic oppression and economic entrapment. It describes a specific mechanism of exploitation where debt is used as a legal or social shackle, creating a cycle of servitude that is often hereditary or impossible to escape through honest labor.
As an uncountable noun, peonage refers to the abstract state or the institutional system of debt bondage. It does not take a plural form in standard usage; one does not refer to multiple peonages, but rather to the condition of peonage or specific instances of debt slavery.
Meanings
Examples
The law was designed to abolish the system of peonage in the southern states.
He spent years in a state of peonage trying to pay off a loan that never seemed to shrink.
I cannot believe they still practice peonage in these remote villages.
The empire relied on a rigid system of peonage to maintain its agricultural output.
Many laborers were trapped in peonage through deceptive contracts.
Is there any way to escape this lifelong peonage?
The historian explained how debt peonage functioned as a form of modern slavery.
She felt the weight of her social peonage every time she entered the manor.