hostage

Từ điển Oxford Advanced Learner 8th

hos·tage [hostage hostages] BrE [ˈhɒstɪdʒ] NAmE [ˈhɑːstɪdʒ] noun
a person who is captured and held prisoner by a person or group, and who may be injured or killed if people do not do what the person or group is asking
•Three children were taken hostage during the bank robbery.
•He was held hostage for almost a year.
•The government is negotiating the release of the hostages.
•The hijackers kept the pilot as a hostage on board the plane.
Idiom: ↑hostage to fortune

Word Origin:
Middle English: from Old French, based on late Latin obsidatus ‘the state of being a hostage’ (the earliest sense in English), from Latin obses, obsid- ‘hostage’.

Thesaurus:
hostage noun C
•The robbers took the bank manager hostage.
prisoner • • detainee • • prisoner of war • • POW • |literary captive •
a political hostage/prisoner/detainee
take/hold/keep sb hostage/prisoner/captive
free/release a hostage/prisoner/detainee/prisoner of war/POW/captive

Example Bank:
•The gunmen took 24 hostages.
•diplomatic efforts to get the hostages released