# hostage

Pronunciation: say "HOS-tij" US /ˈhɑs.tɪd͡ʒ/, UK /ˈhɒs.tɪd͡ʒ/

## Noun

1. A person seized and held to force another party to act, or refrain from acting, under threat of harm to the captive.
   - Simple: A person who is captured and held to force someone else to do, or stop doing, something.
   - _Negotiators worked through the night to secure the release of the hostage._
   - _The gang held three hostages in the bank vault for hours._
2. The state of being held as security, or held in order to compel someone else to act or not act in a particular way.
   - Simple: The state of being held by someone who wants to force others to act a certain way.
   - _The diplomat was held hostage for nearly a year before his release._
   - _Being taken hostage left lasting trauma on the survivors._
3. Something at risk that limits or constrains one's choices, because losing it would be too costly.
   - Simple: Something valued that is in danger, which limits what you can safely do.
   - _By signing the long lease, the company made its finances a hostage to an uncertain market._
   - _Every public boast becomes a hostage to fortune if circumstances change._
4. A person who is compelled by some force or threat, and so is not free to choose their own course of action.
   - Simple: A person who cannot act freely because something threatens or controls them.
   - _Patients can become hostages to a treatment they fear but cannot stop._
   - _He was a hostage to his addiction long before he admitted it._
5. A person given as a pledge or security to guarantee that the terms of a treaty or similar agreement will be honored.
   - Simple: A person handed over to another side as a promise that an agreement will be kept.
   - _Under the treaty's terms, the duke surrendered his heir as a hostage to the emperor._
   - _Noble families often sent their children as hostages to secure a vassal's loyalty._

## Verb

6. To hold a person or thing captive, especially so as to constrain or control it, or to exchange it for something else. *(nonstandard)*
   - Simple: To hold a person or thing and use the threat of harm to control or trade them.
   - _The hackers hostaged the hospital's records and demanded payment._
   - _Armed groups often hostage civilians to gain leverage over the government._
7. To give a person or thing to another party to be held as a hostage. *(nonstandard)*
   - Simple: To hand over a person or thing as a hostage to someone else.
   - _To end the siege, the city hostaged several elders to the conquering army._
   - _Ancient kings would hostage their heirs to powerful neighbors to secure alliances._

## Origin

From Middle English hostage, from Old French hostage. It is either from Old French hoste ("host") plus -age (the sense shifting from taking someone into "lodging" to taking them into "captivity") or from Vulgar Latin obsidāticum ("condition of being held captive"), from Latin obses ("hostage, captive"), with the initial h- added under the influence of hoste. It displaced native Old English ġīsl.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/hostage (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).