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Glite Dictionary
⛓️ A female slave 📜 A female guarantor
bondswoman

bondswoman

1 9.9
A woman held as a slave who is forced to work without pay
  • noun
  • /ˈbɒndzˌwʊmən/
  • Archaic
: esclava
  • As a bondswoman, she faced harsh treatments and had no rights of her own.

Examples

  • The bondswoman toiled day and night, unable to earn even a penny for her labor.

  • After a couple of days, he could sit up and eat what the scared bondswoman brought him.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • An old bondswoman

    Fiction book (2000)

  • A bondswoman, whey-faced, crouching and trembling, hurt him while trying to put salve on his burned arm, leg, and back.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • The story of the bondswoman reveals the struggles of women forced into servitude.

Synonyms

slave
vsbondswoman
819 3.4

A person legally owned by someone else who must work without pay or freedom

is specific to an adult female held in servitude rather than any gender
bondmaid
vsbondswoman
  • NSFW
1 9.9

A woman forced to work for another person without pay

has identical meaning but is a different word form
bond servant
vsbondswoman
  • Archaic
1 9.9

A person forced to work without pay for someone else

is the female-specific expression of that unpaid bound servitude
bondservant
vsbondswoman
  • Archaic
1 9.9

A person who must work for another person by law, often like a servant in the past

focuses on a female held in slavery rather than neutral legal binding

Antonyms

freedwoman
1 9.5

A woman who used to be a slave and is now free

freewoman
1 9.3

A woman who is not a slave and has legal rights

How Free

freewoman
1 9.3
bondswoman
  • Archaic
1 9.9
slave
819 3.4

Surface Forms

bondswoman singular
bondswomen plural

Morphology

bondswoman = bondsman (opaque) = bond + woman

Although formed from elements resembling 'bond' + 'woman', the sense 'female slave' is historically specific (from 'bondsman') and not derivable from the modern common meanings of 'bond'.

Etymology

Bondswoman comes from the parts bond ('a tie or promise') and woman ('female'), so it originally named a woman who was 'bound' to serve another. That's why a bondswoman means a woman held in forced service or slavery.