kidnap

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To take and hold someone illegally, often to demand money for their release.

   The industrialist's child was kidnapped and held for ransom.

2. 2
   noun

   The crime of taking and holding someone illegally.

   The police are investigating the kidnap of a local businessman.

From kid + nap (“to nab; to grab”). Originally Thieves' cant, referring to the practice of stealing children and shipping them to colonies or plantations as laborers. First attested c. 1680.

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