[f. BOND sb.1 + -MAN, the ’s being in sense 1 genitival; sense 2 is treated as a variant of BONDMAN, which in later times had come to be associated with BOND sb.1: cf. the plural bonds.]
1. One who becomes surety by bond.
1754. Richardson, Grandison, IV. iv. 26. Being the bondsman for the duty of Mr. Beauchamp.
1828. E. Irving, Last Days, 189. The disappointed creditors, the broken faith of bondsmen.
1871. Standard, 20 Jan., 5/4. Three of the leading men [were] seized as security. The mayor paid the sum on Monday, and the ‘bonds’ men were released.
2. A man in bondage; a villein; a serf, slave.
1713. Derham, Phys.-Theol., XI. vi. 440 (J.). Carnal, greedy People, so bent upon Gain, without such a Precept, would have scarce favoured their own Bodies, much less have had Mercy upon their poor Bonds-men and Beasts.
1815. Scott, Ld. of Isles, I. viii. From chieftain’s tower to bondsman’s cot.
1851. Mrs. Browning, Casa Guidi Wind., 54. A bondsman shivering at a Jesuit’s foot.
fig. 1850. Tennyson, In Mem., iv. 2. To Sleep I give my powers away; My will is bondsman to the dark.
