thrall

noun

1. (countable, literary, uncountable)Slave; one under the control of another.

   “My father was always a thrall to alcohol.”

   “My servant, which that is my thrall by right”

   “Hereat its Marid appeared and said to him, "Adsum! thy thrall between thy hands is come: ask of me whatso thou wantest."”

   “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.”

2. (uncountable)The state of being under the control of another person.

   “Today's kids are in thrall to their phones.”

   “Go: release him from the thrall of Hautia.”

   “[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.”

   “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.”

   “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.”

3. (countable, uncountable)A shelf; a stand for barrels, etc.

adj

1. (archaic)Enthralled; captive.

   “Rather than to live thrall, under the awe Of lordly lokes, wrapped within my cloke […]”

verb

1. (literary)To make a thrall; enslave.

name

1. A surname.