Library / English Dictionary

RANSOM

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of freeing from captivity or punishment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

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

recovery; retrieval (the act of regaining or saving something lost (or in danger of becoming lost))

Derivation:

ransom (exchange or buy back for money; under threat)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Payment for the release of someone

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

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

defrayal; defrayment; payment (the act of paying money)

Derivation:

ransom (exchange or buy back for money; under threat)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Money demanded for the return of a captured person

Synonyms:

ransom; ransom money

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

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

cost (the total spent for goods or services including money and time and labor)

Derivation:

ransom (exchange or buy back for money; under threat)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Exchange or buy back for money; under threat

Synonyms:

ransom; redeem

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "ransom" is one way to...):

change; exchange; interchange (give to, and receive from, one another)

Domain category:

crime; criminal offence; criminal offense; law-breaking ((criminal law) an act punishable by law; usually considered an evil act)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

ransom (the act of freeing from captivity or punishment)

ransom (payment for the release of someone)

ransom (money demanded for the return of a captured person)

Credits

 Context examples: 

In one night they have held to ransom six hundred of the richest noblemen of Mantua.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

By my hilt! cried Aylward, now that John hath come by this great ransom, he will scarce abide the fare of poor archer lads.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But I am a caballero of Aragon, Don Sancho Penelosa, and, though I be no king, I am yet ready to pay a fitting price for my ransom.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As her French sisters decayed she increased, for here, from north, and from east, and from south, came the plunder to be sold and the ransom money to be spent.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“I am with you, like hilt to blade. Could I but lay hands upon one of those gay prancers yonder, I doubt not that I should have ransom enough from him to buy my mother a new cow.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

No fault, my fair lord, but a virtue: for how many rich ransoms have you won, and yet have scattered the crowns among page and archer and varlet, until in a week you had not as much as would buy food and forage.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And first I would have you bear very steadfastly in mind that our setting forth is by no means for the purpose of gaining spoil or exacting ransom, though it may well happen that such may come to us also.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They were stern days, and if the honest soldier, too poor for a ransom, had no prospect of mercy upon the battle-field, what ruth was there for sea robbers, the enemies of humankind, taken in the very deed, with proofs of their crimes still swinging upon their yard-arm.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Hard he was of hand and harder of heart, hated by his foes, and yet not loved by those whom he protected, for twice he had been taken prisoner, and twice his ransom had been wrung by dint of blows and tortures out of the starving peasants and ruined farmers.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You would scarce credit it, and yet it is sooth that when I was taken at Poictiers it was all that my wife and foster-brother could do to raise the money from them for my ransom.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)