(1) If black cabs refuse to change, they'll go the way of those vanished old hansom cabs.
(2) I am sure some horse-drawn hansom cab drivers objected to motorised taxis being allowed on to London's streets – how are they doing now?
Ransom
Definition:
(n.) The release of a captive, or of captured property, by payment of a consideration; redemption; as, prisoners hopeless of ransom.
(n.) The money or price paid for the redemption of a prisoner, or for goods captured by an enemy; payment for freedom from restraint, penalty, or forfeit.
(n.) A sum paid for the pardon of some great offense and the discharge of the offender; also, a fine paid in lieu of corporal punishment.
(n.) To redeem from captivity, servitude, punishment, or forfeit, by paying a price; to buy out of servitude or penalty; to rescue; to deliver; as, to ransom prisoners from an enemy.
(n.) To exact a ransom for, or a payment on.
Example Sentences:
(1) The mother in Arthur Ransome's children's classic, Swallows and Amazons, is something of a cipher, but her inability to make basic decisions does mean she receives one of the finest telegrams in all literature.
(2) According to Ghazian, the regime cannot easily silence Ahmadinejad, because "he has two important assets: one is that he has the potential to act unexpectedly and, secondly, he has taken his opponents ransom by threatening to reveal their secrets to public."
(3) Professionals say the payment of ransoms by countries whose nationals are kidnapped encourages further kidnappings as they represent a guaranteed cash return.
(4) Other transactions are more blatantly criminal: Eritreans, who with Syrians and Afghans make up the majority of migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean, are often driven “for free” from Khartoum in Sudan to Ajdabiya on the Libyan coast, where they are locked up and tortured until relatives pay a ransom.
(5) At the end of 2010, AQIM had reportedly received €50m worth of ransom money since 2003, with each western hostage worth around €2.5m to the countries that paid up.
(6) A new criminal offence will be created to make it illegal for British insurance companies to provide cover for terrorist ransom payments.
(7) The mining giants have made enormous profits at the expense of Mirarr traditional lands,” he said, “and they are now holding the word heritage-listed area to ransom.
(8) He told delegates: "It cannot be right that 3,000 people should be able to hold the city to ransom, stop people getting to work and jeopardise the economic recovery when the measures we are taking to reform ticket offices are an inevitable consequence of the success of the automatic Oyster [smart card] system ... and when we are able to make these changes with no compulsory redundancies, with no loss of earnings and with no station unstaffed at any time.
(9) Ransome-Kuti made her name as an activist with a mass protest against policies that increased prices for market women.
(10) As "Darien", it was the lookout for Ransome's boat‑loving kids.
(11) The official Anadolu news agency reported that no ransom had been paid and "no conditions were accepted in return for their release".
(12) Downing Street believed it had secured an agreement last year during the UK's presidency of the G8 which meant the group's members would not pay ransoms to terrorist kidnappers.
(13) As for the name, we have already pointed out the possibility that he could have used different identities.” But Calantropo said that while the accused man had indeed been briefly in touch with actual smugglers, he did so to ensure the release of three friends held for ransom by smugglers.
(14) What the State Department admitted today was the dictionary definition of a ransom payment and a complete contradiction of what they were saying just two weeks ago.
(15) (via @ dylanbyers ) Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) White House statement on meeting somewhat tough: "we will not pay a ransom for Congress reopening the government" October 14, 2013 John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) So...why even have a meeting?
(16) The US refuses to pay ransom for hostages, and, Diane Foley said, even threatened to prosecute the Foley family for raising money to do so, while European countries do pay.
(17) He said the pair's freedom was due in large part to the "professionalism" of Foreign Office officials and backed the UK's stance of not engaging in ransom talks.
(18) An exasperated David Cameron lectured fellow world leaders on Thursday night telling them not to succumb to Islamic State's ransom demands, as he warned at the Nato summit in Wales that such payouts merely funded more terrorism against the west.
(19) Sunday's attack in Tripoli targeted the Islamist lawmakers and officials Hifter blames for allowing extremists to hold the country to ransom, his spokesman Mohammed al-Hegazi told Libyan television.
(20) George Christopoulos, his press secretary, and Isaac Ransom, his deputy, resigned "on principle", according to CBC News.