The AI-powered English dictionary
countable and uncountable, plural thralls
One who is enslaved or under mind control. quotations examples
My servant, which that is my thrall by right(please add an English translation of this quotation)
1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “(please specify the story)”, in The Canterbury Tales; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542,
Hereat its Marid appeared and said to him, "Adsum! thy thrall between thy hands is come: ask of me whatso thou wantest."
1885–1888, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume (please specify the volume), [London]: […] Burton Club […]
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.
1915, Jack London, The Star Rover
(uncountable) The state of being under the control of another person. quotations examples
Go: release him from the thrall of Hautia.
1864, Herman Melville, Mardi
[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.
1889, Jerome K. Jerome, chapter 12, in Three Men in a Boat […]
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.
1911, Saki, The Easter Egg
A more enlightened Conservative prime minister, better attuned to the “one nation” tradition of the party of Disraeli and Macmillan, less in thrall to Little Englanders, and less intimidated by the peculiarly vicious and Manichaean worldview of the Daily Mail, would have taken a more consensual approach.
2017 March 27, “The Observer view on triggering article 50”, in The Observer
Labour needs to engage positively with the unions on wider policy issues, but not be in thrall with them.
2022 November 16, Paul Salveson, “Labour and transport: the important role of the regions”, in RAIL, number 970, page 31
A shelf; a stand for barrels, etc. examples
comparative more thrall, superlative most thrall
(archaic) Enthralled; captive. quotations
Rather than to live thrall, under the aweOf lordly lokes, wrapped within my cloke […]
1536, Thomas Wyatt, Satire I
third-person singular simple present thralls, present participle thralling, simple past and past participle thralled
To make a thrall; enslave. examples