hostage

hostage
hos‧tage /ˈhɒstɪdʒ $ ˈhɑː-/ noun [countable]1. someone who is kept as a prisoner by an enemy so that the other side will do what the enemy demands ⇨ kidnap:
    The group are holding two tourists hostage (=keeping them as hostages).
    a family taken hostage at gunpoint
2. be (a) hostage to something to be influenced and controlled by something, so that you are not free to do what you want:
    Our country must not be held hostage to our past.
3. a hostage to fortune something that you have promised to do that may cause you problems in the future
     

THESAURUS

   ▪ prisoner someone who is kept in a prison as a punishment for a crime, or while they are waiting for their trial: Prisoners may be locked in their cells for twenty-two hours a day. | a prisoner serving a life sentence for murder
   ▪ convict especially written someone who has been found guilty of a crime and sent to a prison. Convict is used especially about someone who is sent to prison for a long time. It is more commonly used in historical descriptions, or in the phrase an escaped convict: The convicts were sent from England to Australia. | Police were hunting for an escaped convict. | Low-risk convicts help to fight forest fires and clean up public lands.
   ▪ inmate someone who is kept in a prison or a mental hospital: Some inmates are allowed to have special privileges. | He was described by a fellow inmate as a quiet man.
   ▪ captive especially literary someone who is kept somewhere and not allowed to go free, especially in a war or fighting. Captive is a rather formal word which is used especially in literature: Their objective was to disarm the enemy and release the captives. | She was held captive (=kept as a prisoner) in the jungle for over three years.
   ▪ prisoner of war a soldier, member of the navy etc who is caught by the enemy during a war and kept in the enemy’s country: My grandad was a prisoner of war in Germany. | They agreed to release two Iranian prisoners of war.
   ▪ hostage someone who is kept somewhere as a prisoner, in order to force people to agree to do something, for example in order to get money or to achive a political aim: Diplomats are continuing their efforts to secure the release of the hostages. | The US hostages were held in Tehran for over a year.
   ▪ detainee/internee someone who is kept in a prison, usually because of their political views and often without a trial: In some cases, political detainees have been beaten or mistreated. | 23,531 people passed through the camps between 1944 and 1962, including 14,647 political internees. | the detainees at Guantanamo Bay