slave´like´

slave «slayv», noun, verb, slaved, slav|ing, adjective.

–n.

1. a person who is the property of another. Slaves were once bought and sold like horses in the United States. »

We'll visit Caliban, my slave (Shakespeare).

2. Figurative. a) a person who is controlled or ruled by some desire, habit, or influence: »

A drunkard is a slave of drink. Give me that man That is not passion's slave (Shakespeare).

b) a person who submits to or follows another: »

The head of a party and, consequently…the slave of a party (Macaulay).

3. a person who works like a slave.

4. = slave ant. (Cf. ↑slave ant)

5. a) an electronic device that receives and relays radio signals transmitted by a master control, as in loran navigation. b) a mechanical or electric device, usually a kind of servomechanism, for manipulating objects by remote control, as in handling radioactive materials from outside a closed system.

–v.i.

to work like a slave; work hard and long: »

Many mothers slave for their children.

–v.t.

to make a slave of; enslave.

–adj.

1. of slaves; for slaves; done by slaves: »

a slave dealer, a slave hunt, slave labor.

2. of or having to do with an apparatus or device which duplicates an action or transmits back a signal in the same form as sent: »

The signal from the master goes directly to the navigator and also to the slave station, which, after synchronizing properly, retransmits the pulse (James P. Baxter).

╂[< Old French esclave < Medieval Latin Sclavus, later Slavus Slav; slave < Late Greek Sklábos (applied to enslaved Slavs)]

–slave´like´, adjective.