captor
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of captor
1640–50; < Late Latin, equivalent to cap ( ere ) to take + -tor -tor
Explanation
Someone who catches a person or animal and keeps them confined or imprisoned is a captor. Visiting the zoo, you might find yourself wondering if the lions see the zookeepers as friends or as captors. The word captor sounds a little bit like capture, and it's no coincidence — they're both rooted in the Latin capere, "to take, hold, or seize." So if you capture a cricket and keep it in a little cage, you are its captor. And, when a police force captures a criminal and puts them in prison, the police become captors too. The original meaning of captor was actually "a censor."
Vocabulary lists containing captor
Prisoner B-3087
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The Suffix -or, Part 1
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"Play Ball!"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
McCrae will receive the poetry award for "In the Language of My Captor," a collection of verse that explores themes of freedom and captivity.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 3, 2018
When they got back to a French dugout and could see, Captive Kurt St�pel, German cyclist, recognized Captor Robert Oubron, French cyclist, against whom he had often pedaled in international races.
From Time Magazine Archive
It is probable, however, that originally it was only moveable property which was thus permitted to be acquired146 by the Captor.
From Ancient Law Its Connection to the History of Early Society by Maine, Henry Sumner, Sir
The Captor of Valencia, he presses sore on us.
From The Lay of the Cid by Bacon, Leonard
The ballad—for genuine English ballad it is—is of the "Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" type, and is published in F, G, and A. Captor and Captive.
From The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. VIII, No. 355, October 16, 1886 by Peters, Charles
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
