Word.ws English Dictionary

held to ransom

held to ransom is the simple past and past participle of hold to ransom.

Meaning of hold to ransom

Verb

hold to ransom (third-person singular simple present holds to ransom, present participle holding to ransom, simple past and past participle held to ransom)

  1. (UK, transitive) To hold (someone) hostage until a ransom is paid.
    Synonyms:
    hold hostage

Questions about held to ransom

What is held to ransom the simple past and past participle of?
Held to ransom is the simple past and past participle of hold to ransom.

Words near held to ransom in the dictionary

  1. held the road
  2. held the stage
  3. held tight
  4. held to
  5. held to account
  6. held to ransom
  7. held together
  8. held true
  9. held up
  10. held up a mirror to
  11. held up as

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: held to ransom (page history and authors); hold to ransom (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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