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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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.
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
Her captor did not speak Arabic fluently and had "Asian features", she said, adding that he removed her niqab and took photos.
From BBC • Feb. 17, 2026
Under the fugitive slave laws, the burden of proof belonged not to the captor but to the captured.
From Slate • Jul. 28, 2025
Lyra’s captor thrust her forward like a trophy, without letting go, and said something.
From "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman
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.
