captive
5
5.6
- noun
- /ˈkæptɪv/
- What if they take us captive?
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Watch on YouTubeA lot of people don't realize this, perhaps because they are the captives of memories that just flood them or things like that.
- A lot of people don't realize this, perhaps because they are the captives of memories that just flood them or things like that.
Examples
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When we do work with the system, it's under duress; we feel like captives, not participants.
Blog text (33) -
He was still a captive of the LRA when he turned 18.
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I am their captive, in that I cannot escape.
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So I think you can be held captive to the past if you choose to react rather than responding.
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But there is one obsession in particular that has held me captive.
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Bill pretended to concentrate on the driving and observed his captive out of the corner of his eye.
Fiction book (1998) -
We are all captives of our moment, and we live on a small temporal island.
Academic text (1994) -
To concentrate on the vagaries that swirl around us is to become their captive.
Academic text (1999) -
In the ransom version of Christus Victor, the devil held the souls of humankind captive.
Academic text (2001) -
She felt like a captive to her unrelenting fear of failure.
Synonyms
104
4.7
A person controlled by something, for example work or technology
Antonyms
Compounds
- Specialized
Company owned by a maker that gives loans to dealers or buyers to buy its products
How Controlled
Surface Forms
Etymology
The word captive comes from the Latin capere 'to take' and is the same root as capture. A helpful way to remember this meaning is to picture strong feelings that 'take' a person — they become a 'captive' of that emotion.