Library / English Dictionary

JAIL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A correctional institution used to detain persons who are in the lawful custody of the government (either accused persons awaiting trial or convicted persons serving a sentence)

Synonyms:

clink; gaol; jail; jailhouse; pokey; poky; slammer

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("jail" is a kind of...):

correctional institution (a penal institution maintained by the government)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "jail"):

bastille (a jail or prison (especially one that is run in a tyrannical manner))

holding cell (a jail in a courthouse where accused persons can be confined during a trial)

hoosegow; hoosgow (slang for a jail)

house of correction ((formerly) a jail or other place of detention for persons convicted of minor offences)

lockup (jail in a local police station)

workhouse (a county jail that holds prisoners for periods up to 18 months)

Derivation:

jail (lock up or confine, in or as in a jail)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lock up or confine, in or as in a jail

Example:

the murderer was incarcerated for the rest of his life

Synonyms:

gaol; immure; imprison; incarcerate; jail; jug; lag; put away; put behind bars; remand

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "jail" is one way to...):

confine; detain (deprive of freedom; take into confinement)

Domain category:

jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

They want to jail the prisoners

Derivation:

jail (a correctional institution used to detain persons who are in the lawful custody of the government (either accused persons awaiting trial or convicted persons serving a sentence))

jailer; jailor (someone who guards prisoners)

Credits

 Context examples: 

I could go to jail happy if I knew that you were working for me outside.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He got into debt and into jail: his mother helped him out twice, but as soon as he was free he returned to his old companions and habits.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

From that time, Miss Murdstone kept the keys in her own little jail all day, and under her pillow all night, and my mother had no more to do with them than I had.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

That gentleman was depicted as an intelligent, dignified businessman who had no patience with his brother-in-law's socialistic views, and no patience with the brother-in-law, either, whom he was quoted as characterizing as a lazy good-for-nothing who wouldn't take a job when it was offered to him and who would go to jail yet.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

“I think, Inspector,” Holmes remarked, “that you would do well to telegraph for an escort, as, if my calculations prove to be correct, you may have a particularly dangerous prisoner to convey to the county jail.”

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

From this document, I learned that Mr. Micawber being again arrested, “Was in a final paroxysm of despair; and that he begged me to send him his knife and pint pot, by bearer, as they might prove serviceable during the brief remainder of his existence, in jail. He also requested, as a last act of friendship, that I would see his family to the Parish Workhouse, and forget that such a Being ever lived.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He had once been a skilful sculptor and had earned an honest living, but he had taken to evil courses and had twice already been in jail—once for a petty theft, and once, as we had already heard, for stabbing a fellow-countryman.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I have known him come home to supper with a flood of tears, and a declaration that nothing was now left but a jail; and go to bed making a calculation of the expense of putting bow-windows to the house, in case anything turned up, which was his favourite expression.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Maidstone jail is a safer place of detention, observed Traddles; and though the law may be longer in righting us, and may not be able to right us so completely as you can, there is no doubt of its punishing YOU.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

When she paid the coachman she took her money out of a hard steel purse, and she kept the purse in a very jail of a bag which hung upon her arm by a heavy chain, and shut up like a bite.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)