forced labor

English

Alternative forms

• forced labour

Noun

forced labor (uncountable)

1. (American spelling) Work which one is compelled to perform against one's will, especially in a condition of involuntary servitude as a prisoner or slave.

   Hyponyms: hard labor, unfree labor

   • 1839, Robert FitzRoy, Phillip Parker King, Charles Darwin, chapter 19, in Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty’s Ships Adventure and Beagle, between the Years 1826 and 1836, […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:

     The power which the government possesses, by means of forced labour, of at once opening good roads throughout the country, has been, I believe, one main cause of the early prosperity of this colony.

   • 1999, Linda Flavell, Roger Flavell, “1066[:] The Normans Begin to Erect Castles”, in dictionary of english down through the ages[:] words & phrases born out of historical events great & small, 2005 edition, London: Kyle Cathie Limited, →ISBN, page 17:

     Strategic sites in even the remotest regions of the kingdom were swiftly fortified using forced labour.

   • 2007 June 23, David Lague, “China Tries to Contain Scandal Over Slave Labor With Arrests and Apology”, in New York Times:

     The outcry over forced labor is a serious blow to the ruling Communist Party.

Translations

work which one is compelled to perform

• Arabic: عمل قسري
• Armenian: հարկադիր աշխատանք (hy) (harkadir ašxatankʻ)
• Azerbaijani: məcburi əmək
• Bulgarian: принудителен труд m (prinuditelen trud)
• Catalan: treball forçós m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 苦役 (zh) (kǔyì), 勞役／劳役 (zh) (láoyì), 懲役／惩役 (zh) (chéngyì), 強迫勞動／强迫劳动 (zh) (qiǎngpò láodòng)

• Czech: nucená práce f
• Danish: tvangsarbejde n
• Dutch: dwangarbeid (nl) m
• Esperanto: trudlaboro
• Finnish: pakkotyö (fi)
• French: travail forcé m
• German: Zwangsarbeit (de) f
• Greek: καταναγκαστική εργασία f (katanagkastikí ergasía)
• Hebrew: עבודת כפייה
• Hungarian: kényszermunka (hu)
• Indonesian: kerja paksa (id)
• Italian: lavoro forzato m
• Japanese: 懲役 (ja) (ちょうえき, chōeki), 強制労働
• Kyrgyz: мажбурлоо эмгеги (majburloo emgegi)
• Malayalam: നിർബന്ധിത തൊഴിൽ (niṟbandhita toḻil)
• Norwegian: straffarbeid
• Ottoman Turkish: پرانقه (pranka)
• Persian: بیگاری (fa) (bigâri)
• Polish: praca przymusowa f
• Portuguese: trabalho forçado m
• Romanian: muncă silnică (ro) f, muncă forțată f
• Russian: ка́торга (ru) f (kátorga), ка́торжные рабо́ты f pl (kátoržnyje rabóty), принуди́тельные рабо́ты (ru) f pl (prinudítelʹnyje rabóty)
• Serbo-Croatian: prisilni rad m
• Slovak: nútená práca f
• Slovene: prisilno delo n
• Spanish: trabajo forzado m
• Swedish: tvångsarbete (sv) n
• Tagalog: sapilitang trabaho
• Tibetan: བཀོལ་སྤྱོད (bkol spyod)
• Ukrainian: примусова праця f (prymusova pracja)
• Uyghur: مەجبۇرىي ئەمگەك (mejburiy emgek)
• Volapük: mütavob

References

• "forced labor" in Encarta® World English Dictionary [North American Edition] © & (P)2007 Microsoft Corporation.
• "forced labor" in Deardorff's Glossary of International Economics © Alan V. Deardorff, 2000, 2001.
• Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989. See "forced."