Other forms: captured, capturing, captures
In chess, to capture is to take an opponent's piece off the board. Capture the knight, a capture on the seventh rank, capture with the pawn.
A capture is made by moving your piece onto the square the enemy piece occupies — except for the pawn's diagonal capture and the special case of en passant. Outside chess, to capture is to catch a person or animal and hold them: captured after three days. It also means to record or express something well: capture the mood, captured on film. Note capture as a noun, and data capture.
1verbcaptureTo take an opponent's piece off the board.
“She captured the bishop and lost the game four moves later.”
2verbcatchTo catch and hold a person or animal.
“He was captured within about a mile of the border.”
3verbrecordTo record or express something well.
“The photograph captures exactly what that summer was like.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
capture is a taking hold.
Latin captura comes from capere, to take — the same verb behind captive, capable, receive and accept. Capturing a piece and capturing a mood are the same act of taking hold.
Proto-Indo-European
*kap-
Latin
captūra
Middle French
capture
English, today
capture
Middle French capture, from Latin captūra. Displaced native fenġ (noun) and ġefōn (verb).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA