- a person who is captured and held prisoner by a person or group, and who may be injured or killed if people do not do what the person or group is asking
- Three children were taken hostage during the bank robbery.
- He was held hostage for almost a year.
- The government is negotiating the release of the hostages.
- The hijackers kept the pilot as a hostage on board the plane.
- The gunmen took 24 hostages.
- diplomatic efforts to get the hostages released
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverb + hostage- hold (somebody)
- keep (somebody)
- seize
- …
Word OriginMiddle English: from Old French, based on late Latin obsidatus ‘the state of being a hostage’ (the earliest sense in English), from Latin obses, obsid- ‘hostage’.Definitions on the go
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Idioms
See hostage in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionarya hostage to fortune
- something that you have, or have promised to do, that could cause trouble or worry in the future
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hostage