kidnap
Other forms: kidnapped; kidnapping; kidnaping; kidnaped; kidnaps
To kidnap is to steal a person, or to hold someone as a prisoner until a ransom is paid.
The original meaning of kidnap, dating from the late seventeenth century, was "steal children to provide servants to the American colonies," from kid, "child," and nap, "snatch away." After the particularly notorious Lindberg baby kidnapping in 1932, the U.S. Congress passed a law allowing the FBI to investigate all kidnappings. Today the word kidnap includes all abductions, of both children and adults.
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take away to an undisclosed location against their will and usually in order to extract a ransom
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Vocabulary lists containing kidnap
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