Hostage
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary · Walter A. Shumaker and George Foster Longsdorf; ed. James C. Cahill · 1922
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary
A person delivered into the possession of a public enemy in the time of war, as a security for the performance of a contract entered into between the belligerents. Hostages are frequently given as a security for the payment of a ransom bill, and if they should die, their death would not discharge the contract.
3 Burrows, 1734; 1 Kent, Comm. 106; Dane, Abr. Index.