captive
[noun]
Synonyms:
- prisoner, convict, detainee, hostage, internee, prisoner of war, slave
[adjective]
Synonyms:
- confined, caged, enslaved, ensnared, imprisoned, incarcerated, locked up, penned, restricted, subjugated

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English Thesaurus: prisoner, convict, inmate, captive, prisoner of war, ...

[TahlilGaran] English Synonym Dictionary ▲

I. cap‧tive¹ /ˈkæptɪv/ adjective
[Date: 1400-1500; Language: Latin; Origin: captivus, from captus, past participle of capere 'to take']

1. kept in prison or in a place that you are not allowed to leave:
captive soldiers
captive animals
His son had been taken captive (=became a prisoner) during the raid.
a pilot who was held captive (=kept as a prisoner) for six years

2. captive audience people who listen or watch someone or something because they have to, not because they are interested

3. captive market the people who must buy a particular product or service, because they need it and there is only one company selling it

4. be captive to something to be unable to think or speak freely, because of being influenced too much by something:
Our communities should not be captive to the mistakes of the past.

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

II. captive² noun [countable]
someone who is kept as a prisoner, especially in a war

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

captive
adj.
VERBS be | take sb He was taken captive on the border.
hold sb, keep sb She was held captive in a castle.

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

captive
noun
VERB + CAPTIVE free, release The terrorists will only release their captives if they get what they want.

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

prisoner someone who is kept in a prison as a punishment for a crime, or while they are waiting for their trial:
Prisoners may be locked in their cells for twenty-two hours a day.
a prisoner serving a life sentence for murder
convict especially written someone who has been found guilty of a crime and sent to a prison. Convict is used especially about someone who is sent to prison for a long time. It is more commonly used in historical descriptions, or in the phrase an escaped convict:
The convicts were sent from England to Australia.
Police were hunting for an escaped convict.
Low-risk convicts help to fight forest fires and clean up public lands.
inmate someone who is kept in a prison or a mental hospital:
Some inmates are allowed to have special privileges.
He was described by a fellow inmate as a quiet man.
captive especially literary someone who is kept somewhere and not allowed to go free, especially in a war or fighting. Captive is a rather formal word which is used especially in literature:
Their objective was to disarm the enemy and release the captives.
She was held captive (=kept as a prisoner) in the jungle for over three years.
prisoner of war a soldier, member of the navy etc who is caught by the enemy during a war and kept in the enemy’s country:
My grandad was a prisoner of war in Germany.
They agreed to release two Iranian prisoners of war.
hostage someone who is kept somewhere as a prisoner, in order to force people to agree to do something, for example in order to get money or to achive a political aim:
Diplomats are continuing their efforts to secure the release of the hostages.
The US hostages were held in Tehran for over a year.
detainee/internee someone who is kept in a prison, usually because of their political views and often without a trial:
In some cases, political detainees have been beaten or mistreated.
23,531 people passed through the camps between 1944 and 1962, including 14,647 political internees.
the detainees at Guantanamo Bay

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲