Sĕr'vi-tude, n.

(14), n. [Fr. servitude, Pr. servilat, O. Sp. serviltad, N. Sp. servidumbre, D. serville, Lat. servitudo, from service, to serve; servant, a slave.]

1Sense 1. The state of voluntary or involuntary subjection to a master; service; the condition of a slave; slavery; bondage; hence, a state of slavish dependence.

You would have sold your king to slaughter, His princes and his peers to servitude. Shak.

2Sense 2. Servants collectively. [Obs.]

Now has a numerous train Of herds and flocks, and numerous servitude. Milton.

3Sense 3. (Law.) A right, whereby one thing is subject to another thing or person, for use or convenience, contrary to the common right.

Personal servitude, is that which arises when the use of a thing is granted as a real right to a particular individual other than the proprietor.—Practical servitude, is that which one estate owes to another estate: when it relates to lands, vineyards, gardens, or the like, it is called rural; when it relates to houses and buildings, it is called urban.

The object of a servitude is either to suffer something to be done by another, or not to do something, and never consists in doing any thing. The easements of the English correspond in some respects with the servitudes of the Roman law. Both terms are used by common law writers, and often indiscriminately. The former, however, rather indicates the right enjoyed, and the latter the burden imposed.