CAPTIVE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does captive mean? 

• CAPTIVE (noun)
  The noun CAPTIVE has 3 senses:

1. a person who is confined; especially a prisoner of war

2. an animal that is confined

3. a person held in the grip of a strong emotion or passion

  Familiarity information: CAPTIVE used as a noun is uncommon.

• CAPTIVE (adjective)
  The adjective CAPTIVE has 2 senses:

1. being in captivity

2. giving or marked by complete attention to

  Familiarity information: CAPTIVE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CAPTIVE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who is confined; especially a prisoner of war

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

captive; prisoner

Hypernyms ("captive" is a kind of...):

unfortunate; unfortunate person (a person who suffers misfortune)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "captive"):

con; convict; inmate; yard bird; yardbird (a person serving a sentence in a jail or prison)

detainee; political detainee (some held in custody)

hostage; surety (a prisoner who is held by one party to insure that another party will meet specified terms)

internee (a person who is interned)

political prisoner (someone who is imprisoned because of their political views)

POW; prisoner of war (a person who surrenders to (or is taken by) the enemy in time of war)

Derivation:

captive (being in captivity)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An animal that is confined

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("captive" is a kind of...):

animal; animate being; beast; brute; creature; fauna (a living organism characterized by voluntary movement)

Derivation:

captive (being in captivity)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A person held in the grip of a strong emotion or passion

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("captive" is a kind of...):

emotional person (a person subject to strong states of emotion)

Derivation:

captivate (attract; cause to be enamored)

captive (being in captivity)

• CAPTIVE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Being in captivity

Synonyms:

captive; confined; imprisoned; jailed

Similar:

unfree (hampered and not free; not able to act at will)

Derivation:

captive (an animal that is confined)

captive (a person held in the grip of a strong emotion or passion)

captive (a person who is confined; especially a prisoner of war)

captivity (the state of being a slave)

captivity (the state of being imprisoned)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Giving or marked by complete attention to

Synonyms:

absorbed; captive; engrossed; enwrapped; intent; wrapped

Context example:

wrapped in thought

Similar:

attentive ((often followed by 'to') giving care or attention)

 Context examples 

Many captives were brought to me in this way.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The candle was relit, and there was our wretched captive, shivering and cowering in the grasp of the detective.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

CWD was first identified in 1967 in captive deer held in Colorado wildlife facilities.

(Study finds no chronic wasting disease transmissibility in macaques, National Institutes of Health)

A method of euthanasia whereby a subject is shot in the brain with a captive bolt pistol causing immediate and permanent unconsciousness or death, followed by draining the body of blood.

(Captive Bolt and Exsanguination Euthanasia, NCI Thesaurus)

If I tear, if I rend the slight prison, my outrage will only let the captive loose.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

She had resisted its approaches during the whole length of a speech, but it now carried her captive.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Nafovanny is the largest captive breeder and supplier of cynomolgus monkeys to the biomedical research community.

(Cynomolgus Maritius Monkey, NCI Thesaurus)

This new order of things disgusted him, and he howled dismally for 'Marmar', as his angry passions subsided, and recollections of his tender bondwoman returned to the captive autocrat.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The researchers observed tabanid horse flies around zebras and domestic horses in captive settings and they found the flies had a harder time landing on zebras than on the monochrome coats of the horses.

(Zebra stripes may 'dazzle' pathogen-packing horse flies, Wikinews)

Felix rejected his offers with contempt, yet when he saw the lovely Safie, who was allowed to visit her father and who by her gestures expressed her lively gratitude, the youth could not help owning to his own mind that the captive possessed a treasure which would fully reward his toil and hazard.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)