arch. [Early ME. þrallen, f. THRALL sb.1] trans. To bring into bondage or subjection; to deprive of liberty; to hold in thraldom, enthrall, enslave; to take or hold captive. a. lit.
c. 1205. Lay., 11205. He sloh þæ eorles & þrallede þæ chærles.
13[?]. Cursor M., 9485 (Cott.). Quils he es thralled in his seruis He ne mai be fre. Ibid., 17209. Þus am i thrald to ma þe fre.
c. 1450. Mirour Saluacioun, 3311. The childere of Israel be pharao thralde hoegely.
a. 1612. Harington, Ps. cxxxvii., in Farr, S. P. Eliz. (1845), I. 116. They that thralle us thus by wrong, Amid our sorrowes aske a song.
1872. Tennyson, Gareth & Lyn., 348. Yet lo! my husband’s brother had my son Thrall’d in his castle, and hath starved him dead.
b. fig.
a. 1366[?]. Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 882. The God of Love … can wel these lordis thrallen.
c. 1412. Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ., 4658. He þat auaricious is, is thrallid To moneie.
a. 1533. Frith, Disput. Purg., Pref. (1829), 91. Fleshly lust … would subdue … and hold us thralled under sin.
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Sonn., I. iv. That bright Cherubine which thralls my Thought.
a. 1651. Calderwood, Hist. Kirk (1843), II. 391. Perceaving also the queene so thralled, and so blindlie affectionat to the privat appetite of a tyranne.
1835. Court Mag., VI. 216/1. What right had he … to thrall her promise, and waste away her young life?
c. refl. To enslave, bind, or submit oneself.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 23787 (Edin.). We thrall vs til vr ful fa In prisun for to life in wa.
c. 1412. Hoccleve, De Reg. Princ., 2959. They wolden nat hem to þo lawes thralle.
Hence Thralling ppl. a. rare, enthralling.
1871. J. Hay, Pike County Ball. (1880), 88. Wrapped in thralling memories.
