serf

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serf

a person in a condition of servitude; vassal, peasant

Not to be confused with:

surf – the swell of the sea breaking on shore or reefs; the foam produced by this; to ride the surf as with a surfboard; to search through a computer network for information: surf the Web

serf

(sûrf)

1. A member of the lowest feudal class, legally bound to a landed estate and required to perform labor for the lord of that estate in exchange for a personal allotment of land.

2. An agricultural laborer under various similar systems, especially in Russia and eastern Europe in the 1700s and 1800s.

3. A person in bondage or servitude.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin servus, slave.]

serf′dom n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

serf

(sɜːf)

(Historical Terms) (esp in medieval Europe) an unfree person, esp one bound to the land. If his lord sold the land, the serf was passed on to the new landlord

[C15: from Old French, from Latin servus a slave; see serve]

ˈserfdom, ˈserfhood n

ˈserfˌlike adj

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

serf

(sɜrf)

n.

1. a person in a condition of feudal servitude, required to render services to a lord, commonly attached to the lord's land and transferred with it from one owner to another.

2. a slave.

[1475–85; < Middle French < Latin servus slave]

serf′dom, serf′hood, serf′age, n.

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Noun

serf - (Middle Ages) a person who is bound to the land and owned by the feudal lord

helot, villein

Europe - the 2nd smallest continent (actually a vast peninsula of Eurasia); the British use `Europe' to refer to all of the continent except the British Isles

cottier, cotter - a medieval English villein

thrall - someone held in bondage

Dark Ages, Middle Ages - the period of history between classical antiquity and the Italian Renaissance

serf

noun vassal, servant, slave, thrall, bondsman, varlet (archaic), helot, villein, liegeman He was the son of an emancipated serf.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

холоп

serf

[sɜːf] N → siervo/a m/f (de la gleba)

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

serf

[ˈsɜː^rf] n → serf (serve)m/f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

serf

n → Leibeigene(r) mf

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

serf

[sɜːf] n → servo/a della gleba

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

References in classic literature ?

And just now the word has gone forth that new levies are being imposed for the building of Asgard, the projected wonder-city that will far exceed Ardis when the latter is completed.* We of the Revolution will go on with that great work, but it will not be done by the miserable serfs. The walls and towers and shafts of that fair city will arise to the sound of singing, and into its beauty and wonder will be woven, not sighs and groans, but music and laughter.

It was fifty-two years in the building, during which time a permanent army of half a million serfs was employed.

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The occasional emergence of an Equilateral from the ranks of his serf-born ancestors is welcomed, not only by the poor serfs themselves, as a gleam of light and hope shed upon the monotonous squalor of their existence, but also by the Aristocracy at large; for all the higher classes are well aware that these rare phenomena, while they do little or nothing to vulgarize their own privileges, serve as a most useful barrier against revolution from below.

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"Excuse me," Sergey Ivanovitch interposed with a smile, "self-interest did not induce us to work for the emancipation of the serfs, but we did work for it."

"No!" Konstantin Levin broke in with still greater heat; "the emancipation of the serfs was a different matter.

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In the outlying serfs' quarters torches and candles were burning and no one slept.

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In ancient Rome we have patricians, knights, plebeians, slaves; in the Middle Ages, feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters, journeymen, apprentices, serfs; in almost all of these classes, again, subordinate gradations.

From the serfs of the Middle Ages sprang the chartered burghers of the earliest towns.

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"No longer ago than last night at the `Pied Merlin,'" the clerk answered, recognizing the escaped serf who had been so outspoken as to his wrongs.

"I give not the pip of an apple for king or for noble," cried the serf passionately.

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He must bring nothing outside; we will go in -- in among the dirt, and possibly other repulsive things, -- and take the food with the household, and after the fashion of the house, and all on equal terms, except the man be of the serf class; and finally, there will be no ewer and no napkin, whether he be serf or free.

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Recruited from all ranks of society and from every civilized country of Europe the great horde of Torn numbered in its ten companies serf and noble; Britain, Saxon, Norman, Dane, German, Italian and French, Scot, Pict and Irish.

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