noun / verb

indenture

in-DEN-chur/ɪnˈdentʃər/

A formal contract binding parties to obligations, especially work or service.

The indenture sets out the apprentice's duties and working hours.

A historically plausible apprentice and master sign matching toothed parchment contract halves at a workbench, with a small sandglass denoting a set term; no happy coercion framing, no readable legal prose.

Etymology

inLatinin, upon

+dentLatintooth

+ureOld Frenchaction or result

The tooth image refers to the notched edge cut between matching copies of a contract. Fitting those edges together authenticated the agreement, including contracts binding apprentices to service.

In context

IBW21st7:48

as a result of that hundreds of thousands of workers from britain were transported to work on the sugar plantations on the contracts of indenture and a typical contract of indenture was that you would

Prof Sir Hilary Beckles: The Economics of Chattel Slavery in the Caribbean and the Americas

More examples

Both parties keep signed copies of the indenture.
The bond indenture requires the company to make regular interest payments.
He was indentured to a carpenter for seven years.

Forms

indenture · indentures · indentured · indenturing

Similar words

contract: A broader term for a legally enforceable agreement.
agreement: May describe an informal understanding without legally binding obligations.