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Glite Dictionary
📜 A legal contract 🤝 To bind by contract ↔️ A text space 🌊 A notch or cut
to indenture

to indenture

9 8.9
To legally bind someone to work for a set time
  • verb
  • /ɪnˈdɛnʧər/
  • Formal
translation icon : vincular por contrato
  • Many craftsmen indentured their apprentices for a period of five years to ensure proper training.
  • an indentured servant
  • indentured servitude
  • to indenture apprentices

Examples

  • After escaping Ghazipur, Deeti and Kalua arrive on the Ibis as girmitiyas, indentured laborers bound for Mauritius.

    Academic text (2018)

  • The company decided to indenture several young workers as apprentices to teach them valuable skills.

  • We evolved to take care of ourselves, family, and clan... not be indentured servants to 'Big Brother.'

    Blog text (21)

  • Schooling opportunities were minimal, and at the age of 14, Thomas was indentured for seven years to a blacksmith.

    Academic text (2000)

  • The Gov began to indenture female apprentices from as early as 1974 in typesetting and bookbinding, and 1978 in press machining.

    Academic text (2016)

  • In the past, families often indentured their children to wealthy households to help pay off debts.

Synonyms

to bind
vsto indenture
  • Formal
216 4.4

To make someone legally required to do something

is specifically about formal contract requirement rather than general obligations
to obligate
vsto indenture
  • Formal
89 6.7

Make someone legally or morally have to do something

focuses on formal contract requirement rather than moral or broad compulsion
to indent
vsto indenture
  • Archaic
9.9

To make someone legally work for another for a set time

is identical in meaning and shares the same formal legal focus
to article
vsto indenture
  • Archaic
9.9

To make someone work at a firm under a formal training agreement

is used for formal agreements but stresses a fixed time period

Antonyms

to free
238 1.8

To excuse someone from a duty or rule

How Bound

to indenture
  • Formal
9 8.9
to contract
  • Formal
64 3.5
to agree to the terms
  • Formal
4 2.5

Surface Forms

indenture infinitive
indentured past
indentured past participle
indenturing present participle
indentures third person singular

Etymology

Indenture as a verb, 'to put someone under a contract', comes from the old practice of cutting contract papers with matching dent- 'tooth' notches—signing those papers meant the person was officially 'bound'.