noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Unpaid labor required by a feudal lord. countable, uncountable
2. 2
   unpaid labor (as for the maintenance of roads) required by a lord of their vassals in lieu of taxes wordnet
3. 3
   Labor, especially for roads or dams, in lieu of taxes. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms

fatigue

Etymology

From French corvée, from Late Latin conrogāta, derived from Latin conrogāre (“call together by entreaty”).

Related phrases

in lieu of

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.