1. past tense of blackbird: to recruit or coerce (someone) into forced labor or servitude, especially by deception or violence
Usage: historical; often used in reference to 19th-century Pacific labor trade

Examples

• Many Pacific Islanders were blackbirded into working on plantations in the 1800s.
• The ship's crew blackbirded young men from remote islands to labor on sugar estates.
• Historians documented how thousands were blackbirded during the colonial era.
• He was blackbirded as a teenager and forced to work for years.
• The practice of blackbirding caused immense suffering and cultural disruption.