abductee
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of abductee
Explanation
An abductee is someone who has been kidnapped. Sometimes, a kidnapper will demand large amounts of money in exchange for the return of an abductee. An abductee is the victim of a crime, a person who has been seized and taken away against their will. If you take your neighbor's pet rabbit without asking and hide it in your room, that poor bunny is an abductee. The word comes from abduct, "to kidnap," and the -ee ending, which signifies "person to whom the verb's action is done."
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.
It is no longer just a fringe event where someone like Travis Walton, the mustachioed professed abductee portrayed in “Fire In the Sky,” is mobbed like Harry Styles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2024
In the cold open, McKinnon played one of her many recurring characters, alien abductee Colleen Rafferty, who shared wildly descriptive details of her experience with Pentagon intelligence officials.
From Washington Post ● May 22, 2022
In 1996 I was invited to the clinic of the Harvard psychiatrist John Mack to witness the regression hypnosis of a self-professed alien abductee.
From New York Times ● Jun. 25, 2021
One former abductee called him "a tough fighter who was always on the move" - though with a limp from a bad leg injury.
From BBC ● Feb. 4, 2021
Army deserter to North Korea who married a Japanese abductee and lived in Japan after their release.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 28, 2017
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.
