noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The crime of taking a person against their will, sometimes for ransom. countable, uncountable
2. 2
   (law) the unlawful act of capturing and carrying away a person against their will and holding them in false imprisonment wordnet

Verb

1. 1
   present participle and gerund of kidnap form-of, gerund, participle, present

Synonyms

All synonyms

abductionapprehensionarrestarrestationcapturecatch

Example

More examples

"To my surprise, the noted psychologist was accused of a kidnapping."

Related phrases

express kidnappinggnome-nappingtiger kidnapping

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.