| Library / English Dictionary |
INMATE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A person serving a sentence in a jail or prison
Synonyms:
con; convict; inmate; yard bird; yardbird
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("inmate" is a kind of...):
captive; prisoner (a person who is confined; especially a prisoner of war)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "inmate"):
lifer (a prisoner serving a term of life imprisonment)
trusty (a convict who is considered trustworthy and granted special privileges)
Sense 2
Meaning:
One of several resident of a dwelling (especially someone confined to a prison or hospital)
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Hypernyms ("inmate" is a kind of...):
occupant; occupier; resident (someone who lives at a particular place for a prolonged period or who was born there)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A patient who is residing in the hospital where he is being treated
Synonyms:
inmate; inpatient
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Hypernyms ("inmate" is a kind of...):
patient (a person who requires medical care)
Context examples:
How he has been making use of the zoöphagous patient to effect his entry into friend John's home; for your Vampire, though in all afterwards he can come when and how he will, must at the first make entry only when asked thereto by an inmate.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
The night however, was far gone into the morning—the morning, black as it was, was nearly ripe for the conception of the day—the inmates of my house were locked in the most rigorous hours of slumber; and I determined, flushed as I was with hope and triumph, to venture in my new shape as far as to my bedroom.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
The more I knew of the inmates of Moor House, the better I liked them.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Mr. Copperfield, returned Mr. Micawber, bitterly, when I was an inmate of that retreat I could look my fellow-man in the face, and punch his head if he offended me.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
They consulted their village priest, and the result was that Elizabeth Lavenza became the inmate of my parents’ house—my more than sister—the beautiful and adored companion of all my occupations and my pleasures.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Since I myself have been an inmate of a lunatic asylum, I cannot but notice that the sophistic tendencies of some of its inmates lean towards the errors of non causa and ignoratio elenchi.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
If, on the other hand, as I fancy is more likely, the inmates were warned of your coming, and left before you entered yesterday, then they may be back now, and we should clear it all up easily.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
His mind, now disengaged from the cares which had pressed on him at first, was at leisure to find the Grants and their young inmates really worth visiting; and though infinitely above scheming or contriving for any the most advantageous matrimonial establishment that could be among the apparent possibilities of any one most dear to him, and disdaining even as a littleness the being quick-sighted on such points, he could not avoid perceiving, in a grand and careless way, that Mr. Crawford was somewhat distinguishing his niece—nor perhaps refrain (though unconsciously) from giving a more willing assent to invitations on that account.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
As she grew, her mother began to feel that the Dovecote would be blessed by the presence of an inmate as serene and loving as that which had helped to make the old house home, and to pray that she might be spared a loss like that which had lately taught them how long they had entertained an angel unawares.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
We were born in the same parish, within the same park; the greatest part of our youth was passed together; inmates of the same house, sharing the same amusements, objects of the same parental care.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
