Hostage

Quick meaning: Hostage is a noun meaning Something that constrains one's actions because it is at risk.

Meaning

Something that constrains one's actions because it is at risk.

More Meanings

1. One who is compelled by something, especially something that poses a threat; one who is not free to choose their own course of action.
2. The condition of being held as security or to compel someone else to act or not act in a particular way.
3. (possibly nonstandard) To give (someone or something) as a hostage to (someone or something else).
4. A person given as a pledge or security for the performance of the conditions of a treaty or similar agreement, such as to ensure the status of a vassal.
5. A person seized in order to compel another party to act (or refrain from acting) in a certain way, because of the threat of harm to the hostage.
6. (possibly nonstandard) To hold (someone or something) hostage, especially in a way that constrains or controls the person or thing held, or in order to exchange for something else.

Example Sentences

For example, a subject surprised in the act of robbery may take a hostage to use as a shield.

One of the hostages pretends to be pregnant and is released at Benghazi Airport, where the aircraft refuels.

With a ski mask pulled tightly down across his face, an uninvited guest was dragging his petrified hostage down the hall on the thirty-eighth floor towards the Presidential Suite.

The putative force of hostageship as a form of surety lay in the threat to the life of the hostage in case of default; ties of blood magnified the threat, hence the prevalence of sons as hostages.

Word Forms

• hostages
• hostaging
• hostaged

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include ransom, bonded, captive, seizure, prisoner, kidnap.

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