Definitions for "Serf"
A servant or slave employed in husbandry, and in some countries attached to the soil and transferred with it, as formerly in Russia.
A semi-free peasant who works his lord's demesne and pays him certain dues in return for the use of land, the possession (not ownership) of which is heritable. These dues, usually called corvée, are almost in the form of labor on the lord's land. Generally this averages to three days a week. Generally subdivided into classes called: cottagers, small holders, or villeins although the later originally meant a free peasant who was burdened with additional rents and services. (MEDIEV-L. Medieval Terms) Slave; property of the lord. (Wood, Michael. Domesday: A Search for the Roots of England, 214) Peasant burdened with week-work, merchet, tallage, and other obligations; bondman, villein. (Gies, Frances and Joseph. Life in a Medieval Village, 245)
A semi-free peasant (cottagers, small holders, or villeins) who worked his lord's demesne and paid him certain dues in return for the use of land, the possession (not ownership) of which was heritable. These dues ("corvee"), were in the form of labor on the lord's land, averaging three days a week.