Checking saved dictionary data and trusted language sources. This will stop automatically if a source does not respond.
/ˈpiːənɪdʒ/ · noun
The state of being a peon; the system of paying back debt through servitude and labour; loosely, any system of involuntary servitude..
But there was work to be done down in the Salinas Valley where César Chávez was organizing the grape pickers and lettuce workers out of their state of un-unionized peonage.
"It wasn't just the crowds," Luis said softly. "I saw with my own eyes that Díaz's México is a Potemkin village, Miguel. The México profundo where the poor are so hungry they eat grass and bark. I met Indians whose land is being devoured by Díaz's cronies, entire towns swallowed up, and the people reduced to peonage. I talked to Mexican railroad workers who are paid a fraction of what the American owners pay their own countrymen for the same work."
Use peonage when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.
Peonage means The state of being a peon; the system of paying back debt through servitude and labour; loosely, any system of involuntary servitude..
The closest synonym depends on the sentence and intended sense.
The opposite depends on the specific sense.
But there was work to be done down in the Salinas Valley where César Chávez was organizing the grape pickers and lettuce workers out of their state of un-unionized peonage.
FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0
Dictionary data is provided by FreeDictionaryAPI.com and sourced from Wiktionary under its stated license.