captor
Americannoun
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
The IAR said it took a year to persuade the bears' captor to agree to their release.
From BBC ● Oct. 22, 2025
Under the fugitive slave laws, the burden of proof belonged not to the captor but to the captured.
From Slate ● Jul. 28, 2025
“Do you think you’re a pirate, Nick?” asked his captor, and suddenly something about him seemed familiar to Nick.
From "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman
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
According to a Christian group involved in the case, the pupils managed to escape between Friday and Saturday in what is being described as a brave and risky attempt to flee their captors.
From BBC ● Nov. 23, 2025
When asked what he felt about his captors, he said: "It will take two generations to bring some sanity in them and they need a sane leadership."
From Barron's ● Oct. 20, 2025
Three months later, they said a released hostage who spent time with him in a tunnel had told them how he had acted as a "spokesman to the captors" and "lifted everyone's spirits".
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2025
“I think my captors fear my meager magic, dear. Iron dries out one’s magical wellspring, in a manner of speaking. By forcing me to wear these boots, they have made me quite powerless.”
From "Half Upon a Time" by James Riley
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.
