hostage vs irregular

hostage

noun
  • One who is compelled by something, especially something that poses a threat; one who is not free to choose their own course of action. 

  • The condition of being held as security or to compel someone else to act or not act in a particular way. 

  • Something that constrains one's actions because it is at risk. 

  • A person seized in order to compel another party to act (or refrain from acting) in a certain way, because of the threat of harm to the hostage. 

  • A person given as a pledge or security for the performance of the conditions of a treaty or similar agreement, such as to ensure the status of a vassal. 

verb
  • To hold (someone or something) hostage, especially in a way that constrains or controls the person or thing held, or in order to exchange for something else. 

  • To give (someone or something) as a hostage to (someone or something else). 

irregular

noun
  • A soldier who is not a member of an official military force and who may not use regular army tactics. 

  • One who does not regularly attend a venue. 

adj
  • without symmetry, regularity, or uniformity 

  • rough 

  • not regular; having sides that are not equal or angles that are not equal 

  • whose faces are not all regular polygons (or are not equally inclined to each other) 

  • nonstandard; not conforming to rules or expectations 

  • not following the regular or expected patterns of inflection in a given language 

How often have the words hostage and irregular occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )