captive

«captive» in Mova's school dictionary: a person or animal that has been caught and is kept… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a captive, captives); adjective (captive)

meaning for a pupil

1) A captive is a person or animal that has been caught and is kept somewhere and not allowed to leave. tree →

2) Captive means kept and not free: captive animals. tree →

3) A captive audience must listen because they cannot leave. tree →

sense in the lessons

In history and adventure stories (taken captive, held captive), in science about zoos and wildlife (captive breeding), and in Bible stories (the people taken captive to Babylon).

examples

• The pirates took the sailors captive. tree →
• The prince was held captive in a tower. tree →
• Captive pandas are bred in zoos to save the species. tree →
• The captives escaped at night. tree →
• On the long bus ride, Dad had a captive audience for his jokes. tree →
• The Bible tells of the Israelites held captive in Babylon. tree →
• Among his captives was a Persian princess, to whom he was warmly attached. tree →

note

Noun captivity (in captivity). Captor = the one who holds the captive. Captivate means to charm, not to capture.

In the corpora

• Mediterranean galleys were often rowed by prisoners, captives and enslaved people, on both Christian and Muslim sides.
• The Aztecs believed the sun needed offerings and sacrificed people, often war captives, so their neighbours feared and hated them.
• Daniel and his friends, captives in Babylon, kept God's food laws and stayed healthy on vegetables and water.
• Asshur shall carry thee away captive.
• And David's two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «captive» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.