bondage
n. C / Un. the state of being owned and controlled by another person. It often refers to slavery or a lack of freedom.
n. the condition of being subject to the authority or control of another; slavery or servitude. Uncountable in its abstract sense; countable when referring to specific systems or historical periods.
The prisoners lived in strict bondage.
Many historians study the economic impact of slavery and bondage on early American society.
The poet described the soul's longing for freedom as a release from the invisible bondage of fear and doubt.
Inherited from Middle English bondage (“serfdom”), from British Medieval Latin bondagium (“an inferior tenure held by a bond or husbandman”), from Middle English bond (“tenant farmer, serf”), from Old English bonda (“householder, husband, head of a family”), of Old Norse origin. Sense development influenced by the unrelated terms bond and bind.