RANSOM • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Ransom

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/rˈænsəm/ Listen

noun

Ransom n.

1.

The release of a captive, or of captured property, by payment of a consideration; redemption; as, prisoners hopeless of ransom.

2.

The money or price paid for the redemption of a prisoner, or for goods captured by an enemy; payment for freedom from restraint, penalty, or forfeit. "Thy ransom paid, which man from death redeems." "His captivity in Austria, and the heavy ransom he paid for his liberty."

3.

(O. Eng. Law) A sum paid for the pardon of some great offense and the discharge of the offender; also, a fine paid in lieu of corporal punishment.

Ransom bill (Law), a war contract, valid by the law of nations, for the ransom of property captured at sea and its safe conduct into port.

verb

Ransom v. t. (past & past part. ransomed; pres. part. ransoming)

1.

To redeem from captivity, servitude, punishment, or forfeit, by paying a price; to buy out of servitude or penalty; to rescue; to deliver; as, to ransom prisoners from an enemy.

2.

To exact a ransom for, or a payment on. (R.) "Such lands as he had rule of he ransomed them so grievously, and would tax the men two or three times in a year."

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Etymology of 'Ransom'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Ransom" Quotes from Famous Books

... old friends, lying butchered with their kinsfolk out in the bush, hot tears of rage came to my eyes. Perfect love casteth out fear, the Bible says; but, to speak it reverently, so does perfect hate. Not for safety and a king's ransom would I have drawn back from the game. I prayed for one thing only, that God in His mercy would give me the chance ...

— Prester John • John Buchan

... father-right. There is no distinction between legitimate and illegitimate children. Similar conditions prevail among the Alladians of the Ivory Coast, but here the mother cannot pledge her children without the consent of her brother or other male head of the family. The father has the right to ransom the child.[190] An even stronger example of the property value of children is furnished by the custom found among many tribes, by which the father has to make a present to the wife's kin when a child dies: this ...

— The Truth About Woman • C. Gasquoine Hartley

... regarded as nursing fathers and mothers. In our own day the trader goes and settles in distant places, and receives the weary traveller hospitably at first, but in the end treats him as an enemy and a captive, whom he only liberates for an enormous ransom. This is what has brought retail trade into disrepute, and against this the legislator ought to provide. Men have said of old, that to fight against two opponents is hard; and the two opponents of whom I am thinking are wealth and poverty—the one corrupting men by luxury; the other, through ...

— Laws • Plato

... the duke of Gandia were defeated at Soriano (January 1497). Peace was made through Venetian mediation, the Orsini paying 50,000 ducats in exchange for their confiscated lands; the duke of Urbino, whom they had captured, was left by the pope to pay his own ransom. The Orsini still remained very powerful, and Alexander could count on none but his 3000 Spaniards. His only success had been the capture of Ostia and the submission of the Francophile cardinals ...

— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia

... this in England is told at large in Mr. Froude's second chapter. Henry became bond for Francis's ransom, to be paid to the Emperor. He spent 500,000 crowns more in paying the French army; and in the terms of peace made with France, a sum-total was agreed on for the whole debt, old and new, to be paid as soon as possible; and an annual pension of 500,000 crowns besides. ...

— Froude's History of England • Charles Kingsley

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