Also 7 -knapper, -nabber. [f. as prec. + -ER1. Originally kidna·pper (quot. 1679); also in Johnson, Ash, etc.; so still in northern use.] One who kidnaps children or others; a stealer of human beings. Also fig.
1678. Phillips (ed. 4), Kidknappers [1696–1706 Kidnappers], those that make a trade of decoying and spiriting away young children to Ship them for foreign Plantations.
c. 1679. Roxb. Ball. (1890), VII. 13. How like kid-nappers all the day In every corner they survey.
1684. Bunyan, Pilgr., I. 109. Thou practises the craft of a Kidnapper, thou gatherest up Women, and Children, and carriest them into a strange Countrey.
1778. A. Hamilton, Wks. (1886), VII. 541. For punishing kidnappers or persons who aid the enemy in carrying off the peaceable inhabitants.
1834. Lytton, Pompeii, II. i. The Thessalian kidnapper had stolen the blind girl from gentle parents.
1865. Livingstone, Zambesi, xxi. 434. It is dangerous to remain in their villages at this time of year when kidnappers are abroad.
Hence Kidnappery.
1890. Murray’s Mag., April, 463. The regions of kidnappery, slave trading, and freebooting!
