hostage
Syllables: hos·tageUK/ˈhɒs.tɪd͡ʒ//ˈhɑs.tɪd͡ʒ/
hostage noun: a person given as a pledge or security for the performance of the conditions of a treaty or similar agreement, such as to ensure the status of a vassal.
Noun
hostage (plural hostages)
- A person given as a pledge or security for the performance of the conditions of a treaty or similar agreement, such as to ensure the status of a vassal.
- And there with alle was made hostage on bothe partyes and made hit as sure as hit myghte be that whether party had the vyctory soo to ende.
- "And therewithal was made hostage on both parties, and made it as sure as it might be, that whether party had the victory, so to end."1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, page 232r (Book X Chapter xxx)
- A person seized in order to compel another party to act (or refrain from acting) in a certain way, because of the threat of harm to the hostage.
- For example, a subject surprised in the act of robbery may take a hostage to use as a shield.2013, James L Greenstone, The Elements of Police Hostage and Crisis Negotiations, page 1
- One of the hostages pretends to be pregnant and is released at Benghazi Airport, where the aircraft refuels.2014, Tony Shaw, Cinematic Terror: A Global History of Terrorism on Film, page 130
- Something that constrains one's actions because it is at risk.
- “Oh, well,” I consented sadly, “the garden will lose half of its charm, but such, I suppose, is my hostage to prosperity.”1929, Forest and Outdoors - Volume 25, page 408
- I, too, have a hostage to the future in my large family, as you have, and my only personal satisfaction is that I will leave the heritage to them that I did the best I could for a great nation.2001, Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Amanda Smith, Hostage to Fortune: The Letters of Joseph P. Kennedy, page 219
- One who is compelled by something, especially something that poses a threat; one who is not free to choose their own course of action.
- You have a choice in every moment, so you can decide to be a host to God and carry around with you the calmness that is the Tao, or you can be a hostage to your ego, which insists that you can't really help feeling disorderly when you're in circumstances that resemble pandemonium.2007, Wayne W. Dyer, Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life, page 124
- For I'm not a stupid man, and in that strange, wonderful moment of sublime and utter bliss, I am aware that such joy has its darker side, and that now, more than ever, I am vulnerable; that I have become in that instant a hostage to Fate and Time and, best and worst of all, to Love.2015, David Wingrove, The Ocean of Time: Roads to Moscow: Book Two, page 291
- The condition of being held as security or to compel someone else to act or not act in a particular way.
- […] which number, in Januarye last, the better halfe were already sett free, and departed, and the rest attend the oportunitye of good passadge, except only some few ordayned to bee kept in hostage, for the redemption of Turkes, pretended from us; […]1740, Thomas Roe, The negociations ... in his embassy to the ottoman Porte from the year. 1621-28 inclusive. Now first publ. from the originals, page 376
- Technically speaking, the Arnold infant was not "kidnapped" at all. Rather was she seized and held in hostage. The defendant "carried" no one away. It is true that for a brief space of time he "detained" the Arnold infant in the garage, but this act, in and of itself, does not constitute...1953, New York (State) Court of Appeals, New York Court of Appeals. Records and Briefs, page 37
Verb
hostage (third-person singular simple present hostages, present participle hostaging, simple past and past participle hostaged)
- To give (someone or something) as a hostage to (someone or something else).
- […] in voting the prolongation of the military budget on a war estimate for a span of three years, contemplates, it is said, a speedy reoccupation of the six departments of France which were hostaged to the Germans at the termination of the war.2003, Shirley Mask Connolly, Kashubia to Canada: Crossing on the Agda : an Emigration Story, page 16, quoting some earlier work
- To hold (someone or something) hostage, especially in a way that constrains or controls the person or thing held, or in order to exchange for something else.
- Flexibility of hours is now hostaged to availability of work. Yet, despite these obvious drawbacks the appeal to nurses of freelancing seems to live on. The chief advantage of agency work is the lack of commitment or not being bound by contract ...1983, Nursing Mirror
- Thus, via the Arusha Declaration the Tanzania Government were demonstrating that its country's development would not be hostaged to the capriciousness of the West.1987, Susan Catherine Crouch, Western responses to Tanzanian socialism, 1967-83, Gower Pub Co, →ISBN
hostage meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
hostage in Hindi
- person given as a pledge or security
- बंधक bandhak
hostage in Tamil
- person given as a pledge or security
- பிணையாளி piṇaiyāḷi, பிணைக்கைதி piṇaikkaiti, கிரி kiri
hostage in Marathi
- बंधक
hostage in Urdu
- person given as a pledge or security
- یَرْغَمال yarġamāl, رَہِین rahīn
More languagesFewer languages
- hostage in Bengali
- জিম্মি, বন্দী
- hostage in Telugu
- బందీ bandī
- hostage in Malayalam
- ആൾജാമ്യം, പണയവസ്തു
- hostage in Kannada
- ಒತ್ತೆ, ಹೊಣೆ, ಜಾಮೀನು, ಒತ್ತೆಯಾಳು
- hostage in Punjabi
- ਬੰਧਕ
- hostage in Gujarati
- બંધક
- hostage in Odia
- ପଣବନ୍ଦୀ
- hostage in Assamese
- ওল ül
- hostage in Pashto
- يرغمل yarǧamal
- hostage in Arabic
- رَهِينَة rahīna
- hostage in Malay
- tebusan, orang tebusan
- hostage in Indonesian
- sandera
- hostage in Persian
- گِروگان gerogân, یَرْغَمال yarġamâl, رَهین rahin
- hostage in Thai
- ตัวประกัน dtuua-bprà-gan
- hostage in Vietnamese
- con tin
- hostage in Myanmar
- ဓားစာခံ dha:cahkam
Examples of hostage in a sentence
- Whereupon [the king of] Lou-lan sent one son as a hostage to the Hsiung-nu and one as hostage to Han."1979, Anthony François Paulus Hulsewé, China in Central Asia: The Early Stage: 125 BC - AD 23, page 61:
- The putative force of hostageship as a form of surety lay in the threat to the life of the hostage in case of default; ties of blood magnified the threat, hence the prevalence of sons as hostages.2012, Adam J. Kosto, Hostages in the Middle Ages, page 199:
- With a ski mask pulled tightly down across his face, an uninvited guest was dragging his petrified hostage down the hall on the thirty-eighth floor towards the Presidential Suite.2016, James Patterson, The Hostage: BookShots:
- With a world in flux, many believed that such a doctrine risked offering a hostage to fortune that may be rendered irrelevant by a rapidly transforming world environment.2015, James D. Boys, Clinton's Grand Strategy, page 82:
Forms of hostage
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | hostages |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | hostages |
| present participle | hostaging |
| past participle | hostaged |
| past | hostaged |
Origin of hostage
From Middle English hostage, ostage, from Old French hostage, ostage. This, in turn, is either from Old French hoste (“host”) + -age (in which case the sense development is from taking someone into "lodging" to taking them into "captivity", to applying the term to a captive), or is from Vulgar Latin obsidāticum (“condition of being held captive”), from Latin obses (“hostage, captive”), with the initial h- added under the influence of hoste or another word. Displaced native Old English ġīsl.
Words formed from hostage
Phrases with hostage
Questions about hostage
- What does hostage mean?
- Hostage means a person given as a pledge or security for the performance of the conditions of a treaty or similar agreement, such as to ensure the status of a vassal.
- What is hostage in Hindi?
- Hostage in Hindi is बंधक (bandhak). See Hostage meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use hostage in a sentence?
- Whereupon [the king of] Lou-lan sent one son as a hostage to the Hsiung-nu and one as hostage to Han."
- What part of speech is hostage?
- Hostage can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce hostage?
- Hostage is pronounced /ˈhɒs.tɪd͡ʒ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of hostage?
- The plural of hostage is hostages.
Words near hostage in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hostage (page history and authors); hostage (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); Hostage (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hostage (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hostage (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hostage (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hostage (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hostage (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-hostage.ogg.
Cite this entry: “hostage.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hostage. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.