Definition of "vassal"

vassal

/ˈvæsəl/

noun
plural vassals
1. (historical, law) The grantee of a fief, a subordinate granted use of a superior's land and its income in exchange for vows of fidelity and homage and (typically) military service.
2. (historical) Any direct subordinate bound by such vows to a superior.
3. (figurative) Any subordinate bound by similar close ties.
  Quotations
  The vassals of his anger.
  1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
adjective
not comparable
1. Resembling a vassal; slavish; servile.
  Quotations
  Did they, quoth you? / Who sees the heavenly Rosaline / That, like a rude and savage man of Inde / At the first opening of the gorgeous east / Bows not his vassal head and strucken blind / Kisses the base ground with obedient breast?
  c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene iii]
verb
third-person singular simple present vassals, present participle vassaling or vassalling, simple past and past participle vassaled or vassalled
1. (transitive) To treat as a vassal or to reduce to the position of a vassal; to subject to control; to enslave.
2. (transitive) To subordinate to someone or something.