Hostage

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Hostage \Hos"tage\, n. [OE. hostage, OF. hostage, ostage, F.
     [^o]tage, LL. hostaticus, ostaticum, for hospitaticum, fr. L.
     hospes guest, host. The first meaning is, the state of a
     guest, hospitality; hence, the state of a hostage (treated as
     a guest); and both these meanings occur in Old French. See
     {Host} a landlord.]


     A person given as a pledge or security for the performance of
     the conditions of a treaty or stipulations of any kind, on
     the performance of which the person is to be released.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           Your hostages I have, so have you mine;
           And we shall talk before we fight.       --Shak.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           He that hath a wife and children hath given hostages to
           fortune.                                 --Bacon.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  hostage
       n : a prisoner who is held by one party to insure that another
           party will meet specified terms [syn: {surety}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  25 Moby Thesaurus words for "hostage":
     bail, bond, captive, earnest, earnest money, escrow, gage,
     guaranty, handsel, hock, mainprise, pawn, pignus, pledge, prisoner,
     recognizance, replevin, replevy, security, surety, token,
     token payment, undertaking, vadimonium, vadium
  
  

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Hostage
     a person delivered into the hands of another as a security for
     the performance of some promise, etc. (2 Kings 14:14; 2 Chr.
     25:24).