take hostages

take hostages

To hold people captive and threaten violence to them in order to prevent another party (e.g. the police) from using force or in order to create leverage so that another party will agree to meet some demand. Police are not sure yet whether the criminals have taken any hostages. We might get a year or two in prison for robbing the joint, but they're going to throw us away for a long time if we start taking hostages.
See also: hostage, take
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • take hostage
  • on the order of
  • place an order
  • place an/the/(one's) order
  • in order
  • order from
  • order from (someone or something)
  • order in
  • bum check
  • pass a bum check
References in periodicals archive
Bin Laden threatened: "As you kill, you will be killed, as you take hostages, you will be taken hostage." He also demanded that French troops pull out of Afghanistan.
Bin Laden's threat over burqa ban; TERROR