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 askingThree 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 releasedWordfinderattackalert,assassinate,attack,campaign,execute,extremist,hijack,hostage,kidnap,terrorismOxford Collocations Dictionaryverb + hostagehold (somebody),keep (somebody),seize,…Seefull entrySee related entries:Terrorism
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’.Idioms
