indenture
indenture — noun
1. in earlier centuries, a written agreement that legally tied a servant or trainee
in earlier centuries, a written agreement that legally tied a servant or trainee worker to one employer for a fixed number of years, with no right to leave during that time.
Many poor English children crossed the Atlantic under a seven-year indenture.
collocation: under indenture
Sahil's ancestor was brought from Bihar to Trinidad under an indenture in 1875.
passive frame: brought under an indenture
After Paloma signed the indenture, she could not look for another master for five years.
Most indentures of that period bound the worker to provide food, clothing, and shelter at the end.
Dahlia's history class read an old indenture between a Boston blacksmith and a fourteen-year-old boy.
文法句型
under indenture
sign an indenture
用法筆記
Almost always discussed in a historical frame (colonial America, Caribbean plantations, Victorian Britain). Pair with year ranges, place names, or words like 'colonial', 'apprentice', 'plantation' to make the historical context clear.
常見錯誤
2. a formal legal paper signed when a company or government borrows money by sellin
a formal legal paper signed when a company or government borrows money by selling bonds, setting out the interest rate, the repayment date, and what protections the lenders have if the borrower fails to pay.
The indenture for the new city bonds gave investors first claim on water-tax revenue.
collocation: indenture for [bonds]
Mauricio's law firm spent three weeks drafting the indenture for a 500 million dollar bond issue.
collocation: draft the indenture
Under U.S. law, every public bond sale requires a trust indenture that names a third-party trustee.
The indenture between the airline and its bondholders forbids any new debt above two billion dollars.
Imani, the in-house counsel, read every page of the indenture before the board voted.
- bond contract
plainer, more general phrase for the same document
- trust deed
British English equivalent in some bond structures
文法句型
indenture between X and Y
trust indenture
用法筆記
Pair with bond-market vocabulary (issuer, trustee, covenant, default, bondholder). Distinguish from sense 1 by context: if money lending is involved, this sense; if a person's labor is bound, sense 1.
常見錯誤
indenture — verb
- indenturepresent simple I / you / we / they
- indentures3rd person singular
- indenturing-ing form
- indenturedpast simple
1. in earlier centuries, to formally hand over a person, usually a young boy or gir
in earlier centuries, to formally hand over a person, usually a young boy or girl, into the service of a master for a set number of years to learn a craft or repay a debt.
At twelve, Pim was indentured to a Dutch silversmith for seven years.
passive: be indentured to + master
Many orphans in colonial Boston were indentured to farmers until the age of twenty-one.
passive plural frame
Nora's great-grandfather was indentured to a railway company in exchange for free passage to Argentina.
The poor parish council often indentured local children to nearby cloth makers and tanners.
Tariq's history teacher explained how planters indentured workers from India after slavery ended.
- apprentice (vb)
narrower; only for craft training, not for plantation labor
- bind
more general; 'indenture' specifies the contract form
- free
as the act of releasing someone from such a bond
文法句型
indenture sb to sb
be indentured to sb
indentured for X years
用法筆記
Most often used in the passive ('was indentured to...'). The active subject, when used, is typically an authority (a parish, a court, a parent), not the worker. Always set in a historical period.