captor
Americannoun
-
captors
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
See Examples For:
Before the captor could take title to a vessel, he would have to bring the ship into port and have it condemned before a prize court, which would determine the lawfulness of the capture.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026
Under prize law, the vessels and cargo become the property of the captor and would be auctioned for profit.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026
Since her disappearance, Savannah Guthrie and her siblings have posted multiple videos on social media, including making direct appeals to their mother's captor.
From BBC ● Mar. 27, 2026
Under the fugitive slave laws, the burden of proof belonged not to the captor but to the captured.
From Slate ● Jul. 28, 2025
He peered up to see his captor standing over him, a concrete ceiling and walls behind him, fluorescent lights on either side.
From "Where Things Come Back" by John Corey Whaley
Yet they proved fearsome captors, armed with long spears tipped with shark teeth.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 20, 2026
The family of the kidnapped mother of a top US TV news anchor made a new plea for information from her captors on Thursday, after investigators said they believed the 84-year-old was still alive.
From Barron's ● Feb. 6, 2026
As Guthrie described her mom in the video plea, she appealed to the humanity of her mother’s captors.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 5, 2026
US news anchor Savannah Guthrie has posted a video message tearfully pleading for the return of her abducted mother and seeking proof from her captors that the 84-year-old is still alive.
From BBC ● Feb. 4, 2026
Just as Edmond Dantès had tricked his captors by pretending to be a dead body, she had tricked the Babushkinovs into bringing her to Saint Petersburg.
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
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.
