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 Kid, which still has an informal air, was considered low slang when kidnapper was formed, and napper is obsolete slang for a thief, coming from the verb nap, "to steal."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

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

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