▪ I. capture, n.
(ˈkæptjʊə(r))
[a. F. capture (16th c. in Littré), ad. L. captūra taking, seizing, f. capt- ppl. stem of cap-ĕre to take: see -ure.]
1. a. The fact of seizing or taking forcibly, or by stratagem, or of being thus seized or taken; catching; seizure; arrest; esp. the seizing as a prize.
| 1541–2 in Pitcairn Crim. Trials 257* Remission to John Lausone..for his capture and apprehension. 1611 Cotgr., Capture, a capture or taking. 1713 Guardian No. 159 Being concerned in several captures, he brought home with him an estate of about twelve thousand pounds. 1841 Elphinstone Hist. Ind. II. 197 After Akber's capture of Ahmednagar. 1848 Arnould Mar. Insur. (1866) II. iii. ii. 706 Capture is the forcible taking of a ship, etc. in time of war, with a view to appropriating it as prize. 1873 Morley Rousseau II. 124 The primitive usages of..marriages by capture, purchase, and the rest. |
b. Physical Geogr. The process by which a stream by headwater erosion encroaches on the basin of a stream at a higher level, and diverts the upper waters of the latter into its own channel; also the point of such diversion; said also of a glacier.
| 1898 Geogr. Jrnl. XI. 441 M. Meunier explains the distribution of erratics in the neighbourhood of the Alps by the ‘capture’ of one glacier by another, the head of which has eaten back through the dividing wall, and thus tapped the ice-supply. 1908 J. Lomas in Nature Book I. 165 Standing at the elbow of the capture of the Hodder, and looking seawards. 1965 A. Holmes Princ. Phys. Geol. (ed. 2) xix. 560 Eventually C2 is intercepted, its headwaters are diverted into S1 and its lower course is beheaded. This process is called river capture. The rectangular bend e at the point of diversion is known as the elbow of capture. |
c. Astr. The process whereby a star or planet brings an object within its gravitational field. Also attrib.
| 1910 T. J. J. See Res. Evolution Stellar Systems II. xxiv. 731 The Capture Theory is so overwhelmingly indicated by the most diverse phenomena of the Starry Heavens, that I cannot doubt that it represents an ultimate truth... Moons and planets..always drift towards the powerful centres of attraction, and are finally captured or absorbed. 1940 Monthly Not. R. Astron. Soc. C. 552 The decisive moment for capture is when the parent stars have only just separated after the collision. 1958 Listener 20 Nov. 821/2 A few years ago Hoyle also believed in the capture theory but in a different form. |
d. Physics. The process in which an atomic particle is absorbed by another particle, an atom, or a nucleus. (Formerly believed to be a process by which one particle cohered to another.)
| 1923 Rutherford in Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc. XXI. 510 The capture of electrons by flying α particles has thus opened up a new and interesting field of enquiry. 1929 J. Chadwick in Proc. Roy. Soc. A. CXXIII. 383 The disintegration [of the nucleus] is supposed to occur when an α-particle penetrates into a nucleus and is captured by it, the result of the capture being the emission of a proton. 1938 R. W. Lawson tr. Hevesy & Paneth's Man. Radioactivity (ed. 2) ii. 33 In the course of the flight of an α-particle this capture and loss of electrons is repeated several thousand times. 1955 Friedman & Weisskopf in W. Pauli Niels Bohr 136 The actual predominance of capture over scattering in low energy resonances is easily described. |
e. = data capture s.v. datum 3.
| 1971 [see telecommunication]. 1984 Glaxo Group News Apr. 8/5 The systems installed are used for a wide variety of applications such as the capture of cancer research data. 1986 Pract. Computing Oct. 32/1 The simplest form of file transfer is using the capture or log to disc facility of your software. |
2. The prize, prey, or booty so taken.
| 1706 in Phillips. 1750 Beawes Lex Mercat. (1752) 213 It is allowable to bring a dubious capture into port. 1775 Johnson West. Isl. Wks. X. 399 Produces a plentiful capture of herrings. Mod. He had been butterfly-hunting, and now exhibited his captures. |
Senses 1 b–e in Dict. become 1 c–f. Add: [1.] b. Chess, Draughts, etc. The act or process of taking an opposing piece.
| 1835 G. Walker Selection of Games at Chess 79 Conway appears to disdain the inglorious capture of the Rook. 1850 Bohn's Hand-bk. Games 407 If several pieces, on forward diagonals, should be exposed by alternately having open squares behind them, they may all be taken at one capture. 1960 R. C. Bell Board & Table Games I. ii. 51 [Sixteen Soldiers] A capture is made by jumping over an enemy piece on to a vacant point beyond. 1984 Byte Mar. 294/1 An early stroll of its Queen leads to the capture of a poisoned pawn and then to the exchange of a pawn for a Knight. |
▪ II. ˈcapture, v.
[f. prec. n.: cf. F. capture-r. Not in Johnson 1755–73; replaces captive v.]
1. a. trans. To make a capture of; to take prisoner; to catch by force, surprise, or stratagem; to seize as a prize in war.
| 1795 Southey Joan of Arc iii. 121 His bravest Chiefs Or slain or captured. 1814 Wellington Let. in Gurw. Disp. XII. 8 The value of the property so captured. 1850 Prescott Peru II. 175 To disperse the enemy, and, if possible, to capture their leader. 1879 Lubbock Sci. Lect. i. 5 To capture small aquatic animals. |
| fig. 1873 Black Pr. Thule xviii. 281 As if women were to be captured by millinery! 1882 Hinsdale Garfield & Educ. i. 60 He took great pleasure in ‘capturing boys’, as he called it. |
b. Physical Geogr. Of a river or glacier: to divert by capture (see prec. 1 b).
| 1900 Geogr. Jrnl. XVI. 36 It may then have happened that whole basins, like that of Lake Mascardi, drained formerly towards Nahuelhuapi, have been captured towards the Pacific slopes. 1908 J. Lomas in Nature Book I. 166 Along the Vale of York, where the rocks are softer than those of the Pennines or East Yorkshire, the Don sent up a tributary and successively captured the rivers to form what is now the Ouse. 1965 A. Holmes Princ. Phys. Geol. (ed. 2) xix. 562 The headwaters of the Aire..were captured by the Ribble. |
c. Astr. Of a star or planet: to bring an object within its gravitational field (see prec. 1 c).
| 1910 [see capture n. 1 c]. 1958 tr. J. Verne's Round Moon 11 It had however travelled so near to the moon that it had been ‘captured’ by the lunar gravitation. 1959 Listener 23 Apr. 708/1 Mercury has a captured rotation; that is to say, its sidereal period is equal to its axial rotation period, eighty-eight Earth days in each case. 1961 Ibid. 9 Nov. 766/1 According to one theory, minor satellites of this sort are really in the nature of captured asteroids. 1969 Times 13 June 7/7 It seems that the moon was either a wandering planet that was captured by the earth or else was formed from a cloud of matter. |
d. Physics. To bring about the capture of (a particle) (see prec. 1 d).
| 1923 Rutherford in Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. XXI. 506 The α particle in passing through matter occasionally captures an electron. 1929 [see capture n. 1 d]. 1956 A. H. Compton Atomic Quest 18 The uranium atom when it captured the neutron, became unstable and divided into roughly two equal parts. |
e. To cause (data) to be entered into a computer.
| 1971 Computers & Humanities VI. 46 A terminal that cannot capture text without the help of the main computer cannot therefore be considered. 1977 Building Societies Gaz. July 697/2 Datapad requires no specialist training, captures data at source, eliminates punching and verifying errors, accepts most freehand writing styles and produces clean input data for any mainframe system. 1980 Regional Lang. Stud.—Newfoundland ix. 22 Twenty or thirty pages are being captured experimentally, with appropriate codes, on a diskette for printing out. 1980 Nat. Westminster Bank Ltd. Ann. Rep. 1979 26 Feb. 20/1 Equipment of this type..will enable customer accounting data to be captured for subsequent posting to accounts at the same time as the transaction at the counter is being completed. 1985 DSNA Newslet. Fall 7/1 No further data will be supported at Waterloo until the entire text of the Dictionary has been captured and proofed. |
2. Chess, Draughts, etc. To take (an opposing piece). Cf. take v. 2 d.
| 1820 [see captured ppl. a.]. 1876 Encycl. Brit. V. 593/1 The king, queen, rooks, and bishops may capture any foeman which stands anywhere within their respective ranges. 1960 R. C. Bell Board & Table Games I. ii. 60 If a checked king was unable to move out of check, or it was impossible to capture the checking man, or to interpose another man to protect him from the check, the game was lost. 1973 D. B. Pritchard Go 19 A stone once played is not moved again, but if captured, is removed from the board and retained until the end of the game by the player who makes the capture. |
3. To represent, catch, or record (something elusive, as a quality) in speech, writing, etc. Esp. in literary and artistic contexts.
| 1901 G. B. Shaw Three Plays for Puritans p. xi. The authors had no problematic views: all they wanted was to capture some of the fascination of Ibsen. 1967 E. Short Embroidery & Fabric Collage iii. 57 They at the same time were able to convey the pose and to capture the muscular strength of the animal concerned. 1979 P. Roth Ghost Writer ii. 28 She wrote stories about the college which capture the place in a sentence. |
Hence ˈcaptured ppl. a.; ˈcapturing ppl. a., etc.
| 1795 Southey Joan of Arc vi. 168 Of every captured town the keys Restore. 1820 Hoyle's Games Impr. 357 Should all the captured pieces not be taken off the board. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 240 The English..turned the captured guns against the shore. 1800 Ld. Spencer in Nicolas Disp. Nelson (1845) IV. 225 note, The capturing Squadron. 1864 Morning Star 2 Feb., The capturing of vessels when not carrying contraband of war was unlawful. |