captive

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Kept as a prisoner or not allowed to be free.

   The captive soldiers were finally released after the war.

2. 2
   noun

   A person or animal that has been captured and is held prisoner.

   The captives were kept in a small room for several days.

Inherited from Middle English captif; derived from Latin captīvus, probably through a borrowing from a Middle French intermediate. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“seize, hold”). Doublet of caitiff.

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