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:
When they escape from their captor, Jack is overwhelmed by the vastness and unfamiliarity of the milieu surrounding him.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 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
That was the case with the tall and lean Ebrahim Azizi, who appears as Eghbal, the man the group believes was their ruthless captor.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 6, 2026
Under the fugitive slave laws, the burden of proof belonged not to the captor but to the captured.
From Slate ● Jul. 28, 2025
“His mother is Gaia! Gai—” Her Laistrygonian captor clamped his hand over her mouth.
From "The Battle of the Labyrinth" by Rick Riordan
On the morning of 11 December 2022, Al-Marimi said his captors gave him a sandwich and some tea and told him to pack his belongings.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026
Their Sicilian captors turn out to be fans of the playwright.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
Weeks passed before a partner organisation in Lebanon contacted the Serbian conservationist and said Feliks' unnamed captors had demanded a ransom.
From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026
Savannah Guthrie and her siblings shared an emotional video pleading with their mother’s potential captors.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 6, 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
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
