The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Captivity \Cap*tiv"i*ty\, n. [L. captivitas: cf. F.
   captivit['e].]
   1. The state of being a captive or a prisoner.
      [1913 Webster]

            More celebrated in his captivity that in his
            greatest triumphs.                    --Dryden.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. A state of being under control; subjection of the will or
      affections; bondage.
      [1913 Webster]

            Sink in the soft captivity together.  --Addison.

   Syn: Imprisonment; confinement; bondage; subjection;
        servitude; slavery; thralldom; serfdom.
        [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

captivity
    n 1: the state of being imprisoned; "he was held in captivity
         until he died"; "the imprisonment of captured soldiers";
         "his ignominious incarceration in the local jail"; "he
         practiced the immurement of his enemies in the castle
         dungeon" [syn: captivity, imprisonment,
         incarceration, immurement]
    2: the state of being a slave; "So every bondman in his own hand
       bears the power to cancel his captivity"--Shakespeare [syn:
       enslavement, captivity]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

45 Moby Thesaurus words for "captivity":
   absolutism, bond service, bondage, close arrest, confinement,
   control, custody, debt slavery, deprivation of freedom, detention,
   disenfranchisement, disfranchisement, domination, durance,
   durance vile, duress, enslavement, enthrallment, feudalism,
   feudality, helotism, helotry, house arrest, immuration, immurement,
   imprisonment, incarceration, indentureship, internment, jailing,
   peonage, restraint, serfdom, serfhood, servility, servitude,
   slavery, subjection, subjugation, term of imprisonment, thrall,
   thralldom, tyranny, vassalage, villenage



Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary:

Captivity
   (1.) Of Israel. The kingdom of the ten tribes was successively
   invaded by several Assyrian kings. Pul (q.v.) imposed a tribute
   on Menahem of a thousand talents of silver (2 Kings 15:19, 20; 1
   Chr. 5:26) (B.C. 762), and Tiglath-pileser, in the days of Pekah
   (B.C. 738), carried away the trans-Jordanic tribes and the
   inhabitants of Galilee into Assyria (2 Kings 15:29; Isa. 9:1).
   Subsequently Shalmaneser invaded Israel and laid siege to
   Samaria, the capital of the kingdom. During the siege he died,
   and was succeeded by Sargon, who took the city, and transported
   the great mass of the people into Assyria (B.C. 721), placing
   them in Halah and in Habor, and in the cities of the Medes (2
   Kings 17:3, 5). Samaria was never again inhabited by the
   Israelites. The families thus removed were carried to distant
   cities, many of them not far from the Caspian Sea, and their
   place was supplied by colonists from Babylon and Cuthah, etc. (2
   Kings 17:24). Thus terminated the kingdom of the ten tribes,
   after a separate duration of two hundred and fifty-five years
   (B.C. 975-721).

     Many speculations have been indulged in with reference to
   these ten tribes. But we believe that all, except the number
   that probably allied themselves with Judah and shared in their
   restoration under Cyrus, are finally lost.

     "Like the dew on the mountain, Like the

     foam on the river,

     Like the bubble on the fountain,

     They are gone, and for ever."

     (2.) Of Judah. In the third year of Jehoiachim, the eighteenth
   king of Judah (B.C. 605), Nebuchadnezzar having overcome the
   Egyptians at Carchemish, advanced to Jerusalem with a great
   army. After a brief siege he took that city, and carried away
   the vessels of the sanctuary to Babylon, and dedicated them in
   the Temple of Belus (2 Kings 24:1; 2 Chr. 36:6, 7; Dan. 1:1, 2).
   He also carried away the treasures of the king, whom he made his
   vassal. At this time, from which is dated the "seventy years" of
   captivity (Jer. 25; Dan. 9:1, 2), Daniel and his companions were
   carried to Babylon, there to be brought up at the court and
   trained in all the learning of the Chaldeans. After this, in the
   fifth year of Jehoiakim, a great national fast was appointed
   (Jer. 36:9), during which the king, to show his defiance, cut up
   the leaves of the book of Jeremiah's prophecies as they were
   read to him in his winter palace, and threw them into the fire.
   In the same spirit he rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings
   24:1), who again a second time (B.C. 598) marched against
   Jerusalem, and put Jehoiachim to death, placing his son
   Jehoiachin on the throne in his stead. But Jehoiachin's
   counsellors displeasing Nebuchadnezzar, he again a third time
   turned his army against Jerusalem, and carried away to Babylon a
   second detachment of Jews as captives, to the number of 10,000
   (2 Kings 24:13; Jer. 24:1; 2 Chr. 36:10), among whom were the
   king, with his mother and all his princes and officers, also
   Ezekiel, who with many of his companions were settled on the
   banks of the river Chebar (q.v.). He also carried away all the
   remaining treasures of the temple and the palace, and the golden
   vessels of the sanctuary.

     Mattaniah, the uncle of Jehoiachin, was now made king over
   what remained of the kingdom of Judah, under the name of
   Zedekiah (2 Kings 24:17; 2 Chr. 36:10). After a troubled reign
   of eleven years his kingdom came to an end (2 Chr. 36:11).
   Nebuchadnezzar, with a powerful army, besieged Jerusalem, and
   Zedekiah became a prisoner in Babylon. His eyes were put out,
   and he was kept in close confinement till his death (2 Kings
   25:7). The city was spoiled of all that was of value, and then
   given up to the flames. The temple and palaces were consumed,
   and the walls of the city were levelled with the ground (B.C.
   586), and all that remained of the people, except a number of
   the poorest class who were left to till the ground and dress the
   vineyards, were carried away captives to Babylon. This was the
   third and last deportation of Jewish captives. The land was now
   utterly desolate, and was abondoned to anarchy.

     In the first year of his reign as king of Babylon (B.C. 536),
   Cyrus issued a decree liberating the Jewish captives, and
   permitting them to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city and
   the temple (2 Chr. 36:22, 23; Ezra 1; 2). The number of the
   people forming the first caravan, under Zerubbabel, amounted in
   all to 42,360 (Ezra 2:64, 65), besides 7,337 men-servants and
   maid-servants. A considerable number, 12,000 probably, from the
   ten tribes who had been carried away into Assyria no doubt
   combined with this band of liberated captives.

     At a later period other bands of the Jews returned (1) under
   Ezra (7:7) (B.C. 458), and (2) Nehemiah (7:66) (B.C. 445). But
   the great mass of the people remained still in the land to which
   they had been carried, and became a portion of the Jews of the
   "dispersion" (John 7:35; 1 Pet. 1:1). The whole number of the
   exiles that chose to remain was probably about six times the
   number of those who returned.