Definition of 'captive'
Word forms: plural captives
1. adjective
[literary]
2. adjective [ADJECTIVE noun]
Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
British English pronunciation
American English pronunciation
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Word Frequency
captive in British English
noun
1.
adjective
3.
held as prisoner
5.
6.
Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
Word origin
C14: from Latin captīvus, from capere to take
Word Frequency
captive in American English
Word Frequency
captive in American English
(ˈkæptɪv)
noun
1.
a prisoner
adjective
3.
made or held prisoner, esp. in war
captive troops
5.
enslaved by love, beauty, etc.; captivated
her captive beau
6.
of or pertaining to a captive
7.
managed as an affiliate or subsidiary of a corporation and operated almost exclusively for the use or needs of the parent corporation rather than independently for the general public
a captive shop
a captive mine
Most material © 2005, 1997, 1991 by Penguin Random House LLC. Modified entries © 2019
by Penguin Random House LLC and HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Word origin
[1300–50; ME (‹ MF) ‹ L captīvus, equiv. to capt(us) taken (ptp. of capere to take) + -īvus -ive]Word Frequency
captive in Insurance
(kæptɪv)
Word forms: (regular plural) captives
noun
(Insurance: General)
A captive is an insurance company set up by a commercial company to write the parent company's own insurances and obtain access to the reinsurance market.
Consumers who don't know that the agent is a captive, don't know that the advice on the best insurance is likely to be influenced by the
fact that the owner of the firm is an insurance company.
Owning a captive is a means of arranging for self-insurance, with coverage for very large losses being
arranged by the company by means of reinsurance.
A captive is an insurance company set up by a commercial company to write the parent company's
own insurances and obtain access to the reinsurance market.
Collins COBUILD Key Words for Insurance. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
Examples of 'captive' in a sentence
captive
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In other languages
captive
British English: captive
ADJECTIVE /ˈkæptɪv/
A captive person or animal is being kept imprisoned or enclosed.
Her heart had begun to pound inside her chest like a captive animal.
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Definition of captive from the Collins English Dictionary
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