Sacrifice vs Ransom - What's the difference?
sacrifice | ransom |
To offer (something) as a gift to a deity.
To give away (something valuable) to get at least a possibility to gain something else of value (such as self-respect, trust, love, freedom, prosperity), or to avoid an even greater loss.
* “Don’t you break my heart / ’Cause I sacrifice to make you happy.” - From the song Baby Don’t You Do It by Marvin Gaye
* “God sacrificed His only-begotten Son, so that all people might have eternal life.” (a paraphrase of John 3:16).
* Prior
* G. Eliot
To trade (a value of higher worth) for one of lesser worth in order to gain something else valued more such as an ally or business relationship or to avoid an even greater loss; to sell without profit to gain something other than money.
* (Ayn Rand), Atlas Shrugged
(chess) To intentionally give up (a piece) in order to improve one’s position on the board.
(baseball) To advance (a runner on base) by batting the ball so it can be caught or fielded, placing the batter out, but with insufficient time to put the runner out.
To sell at a price less than the cost or actual value.
To destroy; to kill.
The offering of anything to a god; consecratory rite.
* Milton
Destruction or surrender of anything for the sake of something else; devotion of some desirable object in behalf of a higher object, or to a claim deemed more pressing.
Something sacrificed.
* Milton
(baseball) A play in which the batter is intentionally out in order that runners can advance around the bases.
A loss of profit.
(slang, dated) A sale at a price less than the cost or the actual value.
Money paid for the freeing of a hostage.
* 1674 , , Paradise Lost , Book XII:
* Sir J. Davies
* 2010 , Caroline Alexander, The War That Killed Achilles: The True Story of Homer's Iliad :
The release of a captive, or of captured property, by payment of a consideration.
(historical, legal, UK) A sum paid for the pardon of some great offence and the discharge of the offender; also, a fine paid in lieu of corporal punishment.
To deliver, especially in context of sin or relevant penalties.
To pay a price to set someone free from captivity or punishment.
To exact a ransom for, or a payment on.
As verbs the difference between sacrifice and ransom
is that sacrifice is to offer (something) as a gift to a deity while ransom is to deliver, especially in context of sin or relevant penalties.As nouns the difference between sacrifice and ransom
is that sacrifice is the offering of anything to a god; consecratory rite while ransom is money paid for the freeing of a hostage.sacrifice
English
(wikipedia sacrifice)Verb
(sacrific)- Condemned to sacrifice his childish years / To babbling ignorance, and to empty fears.
- The Baronet had sacrificed a large sum making this boy his heir.
- If you exchange a penny for a dollar, it is not a sacrifice ; if you exchange a dollar for a penny, it is.
- (Johnson)
Synonyms
* (sell without profit) sell at a lossDerived terms
* sacrificialNoun
(en noun)- Great pomp, and sacrifice , and praises loud, / To Dagon.
- the sacrifice of one's spare time in order to volunteer
- Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood / Of human sacrifice .
ransom
English
(wikipedia ransom)Noun
(en-noun)- They were held for two million dollars ransom .
- They were held to ransom .
- Thy ransom paid, which man from death redeems.
- His captivity in Austria, and the heavy ransom he paid for his liberty.
- As rich as was the ransom Priam paid for Hektor, Hermes says, his remaining sons at Troy “'would give three times as much ransom / for you, who are alive, were Atreus' son Agamemnon / to recognize you.'”
- prisoners hopeless of ransom
- (Dryden)
- (Blackstone)
Usage notes
* (term) is much more common in the US, (to) in the UK.Derived terms
* king's ransomVerb
- to ransom prisoners from an enemy
- Such lands as he had rule of he ransomed them so grievously, and would tax the men two or three times in a year. — Berners.
