captive
adjective/ˈkæptɪv/
/ˈkæptɪv/
- kept as a prisoner or in a space that you cannot get out of; unable to escape
- captive animals
- They were taken captive by masked gunmen.
- captive breeding (= the breeding of wild animals in zoos, etc.)
- She was held captive in a castle.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverbs- take somebody
- hold somebody
- keep somebody
- …
Want to learn more?
Find out which words work together and produce more natural sounding English with the Oxford Collocations Dictionary app.
- [only before noun] not free to leave a particular place or to choose what you want to do
- A salesman loves to have a captive audience (= listening because they have no choice).
Word Originlate Middle English: from Latin captivus, from capere ‘seize, take’.
Check pronunciation:
captive