tiger kidnapping

tiger kidnapping
 n.— «Police intelligence reports and underworld crime gangs share the same use of terminology—a tiger kidnapping is what they both call a crime where a hostage is held to force the victim to take part in a robbery.…The origins of the tiger kidnapping spread back well over two decades. The term was first used in London for a particular type of crime against illegal immigrants, usually from the Middle East. When these immigrants reached London they were kidnapped by armed gangs who told their families back home that their relatives would be killed unless large ransoms were paid.» —“Anatomy of a bank robbery” by Jonathan McCambridge Belfast Telegraph (Northern Ireland) Jan. 12, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Further reading

Word-Peckers

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a word-pecker is “a person who trifles or plays with, or quibbles over, words.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Word-Peckers” I always love it when I’m looking through the dictionary and...

Buttons on Ice Cream (episode #1678)

How do dictionaries define colors? And why are some of those definitions so confusing, like “stronger than carmine” and “bluer than fiesta”? Dictionary editor Kory Stamper explains it all in her new book. Plus, the story behind the expression more...