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''thrall'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260120231423-00-⌔

thrall - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

thrall (countable and uncountable, plural thralls)

  • (literary, otherwise archaic) Slave; one under the control of another.
    • ✤ My father was always a thrall to alcohol.
    • ✤ My servant, which that is my thrall by right (please add an English translation of this quotation)1
    • ✤ Hereat its Marid appeared and said to him, “Adsum! thy thrall between thy hands is come: ask of me whatso thou wantest.”2
    • ✤ And there were household slaves in golden collars that burned of a plenty there with her, and nine female thralls, and eight male slaves of the Angles that were of gentle birth and battle-captured.3
  • ✤ (please add an English translation of this quotation)
  • (uncountable) The state of being under the control of another person.
    • ✤ Synonym: grasp
    • ✤ Today’s kids are in thrall to their phones.
    • ✤ Go: release him from the thrall of Hautia.4
    • ✤ [Y]our friend, John Edward, is at the other end of the room with his whole soul held in thrall by photographs of other people’s relatives.5
    • ✤ In her brain she was dimly conscious of balancing, or striving to balance, the abject shame which had him now in thrall against the one compelling act of courage which had flung him grandly and madly on to the point of danger.6
    • ✤ A more enlightened Conservative prime minister, better attuned to the “one nation” tradition of the party of Disraeli and Macmillan, less in thrall to Little Englanders, and less intimidated by the peculiarly vicious and Manichaean worldview of the Daily Mail, would have taken a more consensual approach.7
    • ✤ Labour needs to engage positively with the unions on wider policy issues, but not be in thrall with them.8
  • A shelf; a stand for barrels, etc.

Adjective

thrall (comparative more thrall, superlative most thrall)

  • (archaic) Enthralled; captive.
    • ✤ Rather than to live thrall, under the awe
      Of lordly lokes, wrapped within my cloke […]      9

Verb

thrall (third-person singular simple present thralls, present participle thralling, simple past and past participle thralled)

  • (literary, otherwise archaic) To make a thrall; enslave.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /θɹɔːl/
  • (Standard Southern British, Australian, New Zealand) IPA: /θɹoːl/
    • Audio (Australian): 🔊
  • (US)
    • (without the cot–caught merger) IPA: /θɹɔl/
      • Audio (US, without the cot–caught merger): 🔊
    • (cot–caught merger) IPA: /θɹɑl/
  • (Scotland) IPA: /θɾɔl/
  • (Wales) IPA: /θɾɔːl/

Etymology 1

From Middle English thral, thralle, threl, threlle, from Old English þrǣl (“thrall, slave, servant”), from Old Norse þræll (“slave”), from Proto-Germanic ﹡þrahilaz, ﹡þragilaz, ﹡þrigilaz (“runner, gofer, servant”), from Proto-Indo-European ﹡tregʰ- (“to pull, drag, race, run”), possibly a variant of ﹡dʰregʰ- (“to run”); related to Gothic 𐌸𐍂𐌰𐌲𐌾𐌰𐌽 (þragjan), Old English þrǣġan (“to run”).10

Etymology 2

From Middle English thrallen, from the noun above. Compare Old Norse þræla.

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC: ↩

  2. 1885–1888, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume, [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC: ↩

  3. 1915, Jack London, The Star Rover: ↩

  4. 1864, Herman Melville, Mardi: ↩

  5. 1889, Jerome K. Jerome, chapter 12, in *Three Men in a Boat […] * ‎: ↩

  6. 1911, Saki, The Easter Egg: ↩

  7. 2017 March 27, “The Observer view on triggering article 50”, in The Observer ‎: ↩

  8. 2022 November 16, Paul Salveson, “Labour and transport: the important role of the regions”, in RAIL, number 970, page 31: ↩

  9. 1536, Thomas Wyatt, Satire I: ↩

  10. Etymology according to ODS: muligvis beslægtet med oht. drigil, tjener, og got. þragjan, oeng. þrægan, løbe ↩

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