▪ I. kidnap, v.
(ˈkɪdˌnæp)
[f. kid n.1 5 c + nap v., to snatch, seize (cf. nab); possibly as a back-formation from kidnapper. The words no doubt originated among the class which followed the practice of kidnapping. Bailey, Johnson, Ash, etc. stress kidˈnap, which is still usual in the north.]
Originally, to steal or carry off (children or others) in order to provide servants or labourers for the American plantations; hence, in general use, to steal (a child), to carry off (a person) by illegal force.
| 1682 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) I. 183 Mr. John Wilmore haveing kidnapped a boy of 13 years of age to Jamaica, a writt de homine replegiando was delivered to the sheriffs of London against him. 1688 Lond. Gaz. No. 2360/3 John Dykes..Convicted of Kidnapping, or Enticing away, His Majesty's Subjects, to go Servants into the Foreign Plantations. 1693 I. Mather Cases Consc. (1862) 241 A Servant, who was Spirited or Kidnapt (as they call it) into America. 1723 De Foe Col. Jack (1840) 266, I will kidnap her and send her to Virginia. 1809 J. Adams Wks. (1854) IX. 316 The practice in Holland of kidnapping men for settlers or servants in Batavia. 1849 James Gipsy xviii, You go kidnapping people's children, you thieves of human flesh. 1884 Pae Eustace 103, I am not a common seaman, to be kidnapped in this fashion. |
| fig. 1732 Swift Corr. Wks. 1841 II. 669 We [the Irish] have but one dunce of irrefragable fame,..and the Scots have kidnapped him from us. 1850 Kingsley Alton Locke x, The people who see their children thus kidnapped into hell. |
Hence
ˈkidˌnapped ppl. a.,
ˈkidˈnapping vbl. n. and ppl. a.,
kidnappingly adv.| 1798 Anti-Jacobin 22 Jan. (1852) 47 Courteny's *kidnapp'd rhymes. 1861 Times 10 July, Full freights of kidnapped Chinamen. 1878 Gladstone Prim. Homer 110 The kid⁓napped victims whom Phœnician vessels brought from abroad. |
| 1682 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) I. 187 The witnesses..were..to prove that there was..such a trade as *kidnapping or spiriting away children. 1769 Blackstone Comm. IV. xv. 219 The other remaining offence, that of kid⁓napping, being the forcible abduction or stealing away of man, woman, or child from their own country, and selling them into another. 1830 Scott Demonol. iv. 127 This kid⁓napping of the human race, so peculiar to the whole Elfin people. 1867 Freeman Norm. Conq. I. v. 365 The kidnapping of persons of free condition was not unknown. |
| 1887 Athenæum 19 Mar. 375/3 The *kidnapping grandmother..is not so repellent as might be supposed. |
| 1838 Tait's Mag. V. 206, I hold it to have been wickedly,..crimpingly, *kidnappingly done. |
▪ II. kidnap, n. (
ˈkɪdnæp)
[f. the vb.] The act of kidnapping. Also
attrib.| 1961 Webster s.v., A kidnap plot. The kidnap car. 1973 ‘I. Drummond’ Jaws of Watchdog xv. 204 There was no money in killing you, but maybe a lot in a kidnap. 1973 Observer 12 Aug. 1/2 (heading) Jet kidnap was attempt to capture top guerrilla. 1974 N. Freeling Dressing of Diamond 201 A kidnap case—yes..we had it on our telex last night. |