hostage

CEFRC1

/ˈhɒs.tɪd͡ʒ/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A person held prisoner to force others to act.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    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.

Examples

  • He tried to brave it out while held as a hostage.

  • Russia expresses regret for those lost in the hostage incident.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

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

  2. 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.

  3. One who is compelled by something, especially something that poses a threat; one who is not free to choose their own course of action.

More examples

In context

  • Three children were taken hostage during the bank robbery.

  • […] in voting the prolongation of the military budget on a war estimate for a span of three years, contemplates, it is said, a speedy reoccupation of the six departments of France which were hostaged to the Germans at the termination of the war.

  • Technically speaking, the Arnold infant was not "kidnapped" at all. Rather was she seized and held in hostage. The defendant "carried" no one away. It is true that for a brief space of time he "detained" the Arnold infant in the garage, but this act, in and o...

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Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English hostage, ostage, from Old French hostage, ostage. This, in turn, is either from Old French hoste (“host”) + -age (in which case the sense development is from taking someone into "lodging" to taking them into "captivity", to applying the term to a captive), or is from Vulgar Latin obsidāticum (“condition of being held captive”), from Latin obses (“hostage, captive”), with the initial h- added under the influence of hoste or another word. Displaced native Old English ġīsl.