slave

Universal Words noun, verb noun 1 a person who is legally owned by another person and is forced to work for them: She treated her daughter like a slave. * slave owners 2 ~ of / to sth a person who is so strongly influenced by sth that they cannot live without it, or cannot make their own decisions: We are slaves of the motor car. * Sue's a slave to fashion. verb [V] [usually +adv./prep.] ~ (away) (at sth) to work very hard: I've been slaving away all day trying to get this work finished. * I haven't got time to spend hours slaving over a hot stove (= doing a lot of cooking).