hostages

Noun

hostage (plural hostages)

1. 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)
2. 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
3. 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
4. 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
5. 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

See all 7 meanings of hostage