Capture Meaning
/ˈkæp.(t)ʃəː/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounAn act of capturing; a seizing by force or stratagem.
nounThe securing of an object of strife or desire, as by the power of some attraction.
Sentence Examples
The capture of the prince by the king led to another war.
I go to bed early so I can get up to capture the sunrise.
He evaded capture for three days.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The photographer hoped to ____ the eagle's majestic flight in the perfect shot.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He tried to ____ the beauty of the mountain in his new oil painting.
Word Origin & History
Borrowed from Middle French capture (noun), from Latin captūra. Displaced native Old English fenġ (noun) and ġefōn (verb).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"even with regard to captures made at sea"
— 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:
"After the match […], the text matched within the named capture is available via the Match object's Groups(name) property."
— 2006, Jeffrey Friedl, Mastering Regular Expressions, page 409:
"Arrests and prosecutions intensified after Isis captured Mosul in June, but the groundwork had been laid by an earlier amendment to Jordan’s anti-terrorism law. It is estimated that 2,000 Jordanians have fought and 250 of them have died in Syria – making them the third largest Arab contingent in Isis after Saudi Arabians and Tunisians."
— 2014 November 27, Ian Black, “Courts kept busy as Jordan works to crush support for Isis”, in The Guardian:
"[…]I said it was because Tillerson hadn't filled the subordinate ranks with appointees who would advance the Administration's policies and that he had, in effect, been captured by the careerists."
— 2020 June 23, John Bolton, The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 29:
"Being so inflexible, the railway was easy prey to road competition, and the arrival of unregulated lorry transport from farm fields to town centres quickly captured all locally generated business."
— 2020 November 18, Howard Johnston, “The missing 'Lincs' and the sole survivor”, in Rail, page 58:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The photographer hoped to ____ the eagle's majestic flight in the perfect shot.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He tried to ____ the beauty of the mountain in his new oil painting.