hostage

Plural

hostages

1. 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.

   • The putative force of hostageship as a form of surety lay in the threat to the life of the hostage in case of default; ties of blood magnified the threat, hence the prevalence of sons as hostages.

2. 2.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.”
   • With a world in flux, many believed that such a doctrine risked offering a hostage to fortune that may be rendered irrelevant by a rapidly transforming world environment.
   • I, too, have a hostage to the future in my large family, as you have, and my only personal satisfaction is that I will leave the heritage to them that I did the best I could for a great nation.

3. 3.One who is compelled by something, especially something that poses a threat; one who is not free to choose their own course of action.

   • Can he change the situation significantly or is he a hostage to a system that is resistant to dismantling?

4. 4.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.
   • One of the hostages pretends to be pregnant and is released at Benghazi Airport, where the aircraft refuels.
   • With a ski mask pulled tightly down across his face, an uninvited guest was dragging his petrified hostage down the hall on the thirty-eighth floor towards the Presidential Suite.

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• host