From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishabductab‧duct /əbˈdʌkt, æb-/ verb [transitive] TAKE/BRINGto take someone away by force SYN kidnap The diplomat was abducted on his way to the airport. —abductor noun [countable] —abduction /əbˈdʌkʃən, æb-/ noun [countable, uncountable] child abduction —abductee /ˌæbdʌkˈtiː/ noun [countable]RegisterAbduct is mostly used in journalism. In everyday English, people usually say kidnap:He was kidnapped on his way to the airport.→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
abduct• Kurdish separatists have abducted a Japanese tourist and are demanding money for his safe return.• The two high school girls were abducted at gunpoint on Tuesday.• I thought I was abducted by aliens or something.• Looting and rape by rebels and their bands of abducted children still occur.• Lawson was abducted from her home.• At the age of sixteen, he was abducted from his homeland of Kilpatrick and enslaved in Ireland.• Several young women had been abducted from their villages and forced to work as prostitutes.• In this story, no one abducts Persephone.• He could not abduct Ruth, even assuming he had instructions to do so, which seemed unlikely.Origin abduct (1600-1700) Latin past participle of abducere, from ab- “away” + ducere “to lead” 