kidnap
/ˈkɪdnæp/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Northern England/kɪdˈnæp/
kidnap verb: to seize or detain a person unlawfully and move or conceal them; sometimes for ransom.
Verb
kidnap (third-person singular simple present kidnaps, present participle kidnapping or (rare, US only) kidnaping, simple past and past participle kidnapped or (rare, US only) kidnaped)
- To seize or detain a person unlawfully and move or conceal them; sometimes for ransom.
- Hello, ladies! How’s the Big Apple?
Rotten, Jerry! Clover's been kidnapped!
Oh, dear! That's the second time this month!2002 September 6, Michelle and Robert Lamoreaux, “Model Citizens”, in Totally Spies!, season 1, episode 9, spoken by Alexandra “Alex” (Jess Harnell as Jerry and Katie Leigh), Marathon Media, via... - Angrest, a soldier, was kidnapped from his tank at the Nahal Oz base when it was attacked by Hamas.2025 March 7, ToI staff, JTA, “The next 24: These are the remaining hostages presumed alive in Gaza”, in The Times of Israel, archived from the original on 03 Aug 2025
- Hello, ladies! How’s the Big Apple?
Noun
kidnap (countable and uncountable, plural kidnaps)
- The crime, or an instance, of kidnapping.
kidnap meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
kidnap in Hindi
- to seize and detain a person unlawfully
- अपहरण करना apahraṇ karnā
- an instance of kidnapping
- अपहरण apahraṇ
kidnap in Tamil
- to seize and detain a person unlawfully
- கடத்து kaṭattu
kidnap in Marathi
- to seize and detain a person unlawfully
- अपहरण apahraṇ
kidnap in Urdu
- اغوا کر لینا, بچہ چرانا, بھگا لے جانا, چرا لے جانا, اڑا لے جانا
More languagesFewer languages
- kidnap in Bengali
- অপহরণ opohoron
- kidnap in Telugu
- కిడ్నాప్ చేయడానికి, కిడ్నాప్ చెయ్యడానికి
- kidnap in Malayalam
- തട്ടിക്കൊണ്ടുപോകുക
- kidnap in Kannada
- ಬಲಾತ್ಕಾರವಾಗಿ ಹೊತ್ತುಕೊಂಡು ಹೋಗು, ಅಪಹರಿಸು, ಕದ್ದೊಯ್ಯು, ಹೊತ್ತೊಯ್ಯು
- kidnap in Gujarati
- અપહરણ કરવું, અપહરણ કરવા
- kidnap in Odia
- ଅପହରଣ କରିବା
- kidnap in Tagalog
- kidnap, dukot
- kidnap in Arabic
- اِخْتَطَفَ iḵtaṭafa
- kidnap in Indonesian
- menculik, penculikan
- kidnap in Persian
- آدمربای کردن âdam-robâye kardan
- kidnap in Thai
- ลักพาตัว lák-paa-dtuua
- kidnap in Vietnamese
- bắt cóc, sự bắt cóc
- kidnap in Myanmar
- ပြန်ပေးဆွဲ pranpe:hcwai:
Examples of kidnap in a sentence
- The villain kidnapping the love interest is a bit of a cliché.
- A minibus van, often numberless and dubbed the 'drone', gained notoriety for kidnaps and disappearances.
- You're both still trying to make things the way they were before I was kidnapped.
Synonyms of kidnap
Forms of kidnap
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | kidnaps |
| present participle | kidnapping |
| past participle | kidnapped |
| past | kidnapped |
| present participle US (rare) | kidnaping |
| past participle US (rare) | kidnaped |
| past US (rare) | kidnaped |
| Noun | |
| plural | kidnaps |
Origin of kidnap
From kid + nap (“to nab; to grab”). Originally Thieves' cant, referring to the practice of stealing children and shipping them to colonies or plantations as laborers. First attested c. 1680.
Words formed from kidnap
Questions about kidnap
- What does kidnap mean?
- Kidnap means to seize or detain a person unlawfully and move or conceal them; sometimes for ransom.
- What is kidnap in Hindi?
- Kidnap in Hindi is अपहरण करना (apahraṇ karnā), अपहरण (apahraṇ). See Kidnap meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is kidnap?
- Kidnap can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce kidnap?
- Kidnap is pronounced /ˈkɪdnæp/.
- What is the past tense of kidnap?
- The past tense of kidnap is kidnapped.
Words near kidnap in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: kidnap (page history and authors); kidnap (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); অপহরণ (Bengali) (page history and authors); kidnap (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); kidnap (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); kidnap (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); kidnap (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); kidnap (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-kidnap.wav.
Cite this entry: “kidnap.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kidnap. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.