kid·nap

(kĭd′năp′)

tr.v. kid·napped, kid·nap·ping, kid·naps or kid·naped or kid·nap·ing

To abduct or confine (a person) forcibly, by threat of force, or by deceit, without the authority of law.

[kid, child + nap, to snatch (perhaps variant of nab or of Scandinavian origin ).]

kid′nap·pee′, kid′nap·ee′ (kĭd′nă-pē′) n.

kid′nap′ n.

kid′nap′per, kid′nap′er n.

Word History: Kidnapper seems to have originated among those who perpetrate this crime. We know this because kid and napper, the two parts of the compound, were slang of the sort that criminals used. Kid, which still has an informal air, was considered low slang when kidnapper was formed, and napper is obsolete slang for a thief, coming from the verb nap, "to steal." Nap is possibly a variant of nab, which also still has a slangy ring. In the second half of the 1600s, when the word kidnapper begins to appear in English, kidnappers plied their trade to secure laborers for plantations in colonies such as the ones in North America. The term later took on the broader sense that it has today. The verb kidnap begins to be attested a bit later than kidnapper and is possibly a back-formation from kidnapper—that is, the suffix -er was removed from kidnapper to create a new verb kidnap.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

kidnapper - someone who unlawfully seizes and detains a victim (usually for ransom)

abductor, kidnaper, snatcher

captor, capturer - a person who captures and holds people or animals

criminal, crook, felon, malefactor, outlaw - someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime

crimper, crimp - someone who tricks or coerces men into service as sailors or soldiers

seizer, shanghaier - a kidnapper who drugs men and takes them for compulsory service aboard a ship

Translations

مُخْتَطِف

bortførerkidnapper

Entführer Geiselnehmer Kidnapper

απαγωγέας

ravisseur

emberrabló

mannræningi

sequestratore rapitore

kidnapper

ugrabitelj

adam kaçıran

绑架者

kidnapper

kidnaper (US) [ˈkɪdnæpəʳ] N → secuestrador(a) m/f, raptor(a) m/f, plagiador/a m/f (Mex)

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

kidnapper

[ˈkɪdnæpə^r] n → ravisseur/euse m/f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

kidnapper

n → Entführer(in) m(f), → Kidnapper(in) m(f)

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

kidnapper

[ˈkɪdnæpəʳ] n → rapitore/trice, sequestratore/trice

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

kidnap

(ˈkidnӕp) – past tense, past participle ˈkidnapped , (American) ˈkidnaped – verb

to carry off (a person) by force, often demanding money in exchange for his safe return. He is very wealthy and lives in fear of his children being kidnapped.

ˈkidnapper noun

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

I found among them a deter- mination to protect each other from the blood-thirsty kidnapper, at all hazards.

I was afraid to speak to any one for fear of speaking to the wrong one, and thereby fall- ing into the hands of money-loving kidnappers, whose business it was to lie in wait for the panting fugitive, as the ferocious beasts of the forest lie in wait for their prey.

View in context

The unhappy kits were rescued, half smothered, and restored to their lawful owners, amid dire lamentation from the little kidnapper, who declared that she only "tooked um 'cause they'd want to go wid their sister Tomit."

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The kidnapper undid the bloody wrappings and looked at his lacerated hand.

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Some person unknown must have interfered with the gas-man and his staff...and that person unknown was obviously working on behalf of the kidnapper....But what a funny idea to kidnap a performer on the stage!...Send for the doctor of the theater, please." And Mifroid repeated, "Curious, decidedly curious business!"

View in context

'The school was Mr Squeers's,' continued Ralph; 'the boy was left there in the name of Smike; every description was fully given, dates tally exactly with Mr Squeers's books, Mr Squeers is lodging with you at this time; you have two other boys at his school: you communicated the whole discovery to him, he brought you to me as the person who had recommended to him the kidnapper of his child; and I brought you here.

View in context

"Who is a kidnapper?" demanded Abiram, with a blustering show of resentment.

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Here I walked about for a long time, feeling very strange, and mortally apprehensive of some one coming in and kidnapping me; for I believed in kidnappers, their exploits having frequently figured in Bessie's fireside chronicles.

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I have, therefore, received a very good education, and have been treated by these kidnappers very much as the slaves were treated in Asia Minor, whose masters made them grammarians, doctors, and philosophers, in order that they might fetch a higher price in the Roman market." Monte Cristo smiled with satisfaction; it appeared as if he had not expected so much from M.

View in context

Kidnappers and inveiglers were planted in all the avenues of entrance to the Commons, with instructions to do their utmost to cut off all persons in mourning, and all gentlemen with anything bashful in their appearance, and entice them to the offices in which their respective employers were interested; which instructions were so well observed, that I myself, before I was known by sight, was twice hustled into the premises of our principal opponent.

View in context

Theoretic kidnappers and slave-drivers, they esteem each man the victim of another, who winds him round his finger by knowing the law of his being; and by such cheap signboards as the color of his beard or the slope of his occiput, reads the inventory of his fortunes and character.

View in context

FAISALABAD -- CIA police have recovered an abducted girl and arrested a female kidnapper from the area of Tandlianwala police.

Abducted girl recovered, female kidnapper arrested