A semifree peasant of a low hereditary class, slavishly attached to the land owned by a feudal lord and required to perform labour, enjoying minimal legal or customary rights
{i} indentured servant, vassal, servant who is bound to a feudal lord and can be transferred with the estate; slave, person held in bondage
In former times, serfs were a class of people who had to work on a particular person's land and could not leave without that person's permission. someone in the past who lived and worked on land that they did not own and who had to obey the owner of the land slave (1) peasant (servus; SERVE)
Serf Semi-free peasant who worked his lord's demesne and paid him certain dues in return for the use of land, the possession (not ownership) of which was heritable These dues, usually called corvee, were usually in the form of labour on the lord's land Generally this averaged three days a week Serfs were generally classified as: 'Cottagers', 'small-holders', or 'villeins' although the later originally meant free peasants who were burdened with additional rents and services
A servant or slave employed in husbandry, and in some countries attached to the soil and transferred with it, as formerly in Russia