enslaver
noun
en·slav·er
in-ˈslā-vər
en-
plural enslavers
1
: someone or something that forces one or more people into or as if into slavery
The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes …—Frederick Douglass
The opera's libretto depicts Columbus as hungry for gold and an enslaver of the Tainos …—Bill Kaufman
… writings and textbooks and pamphlets—some 100 years old—calling tobacco foul, poisonous, an enslaver of the mind and soul.—Matthew Ebner
2
: slaveholder
Six years after she was enslaved on Spanish Point, Prince's enslaver sold her again to another slaveholder …—Christopher Michael Blakley
An online movement to rename a T [=Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority] station is gaining traction after a local librarian learned that it memorializes a family that included an enslaver.—The Dorchester Reporter (Massachusetts)
Cite this Entry
“Enslaver.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enslaver. Accessed 4 Sep. 2026.
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