jail[noun]Synonyms:- prison, nick
(Brit. slang), penitentiary
(U.S.), reformatory, slammer
(slang)[verb]Synonyms:- imprison, confine, detain, incarcerate, lock up, send down
Antonyms: release
Related Idioms: house of correction
English Thesaurus: prison, jail, gaol, penitentiary, correctional facility, ... [TahlilGaran] English Synonym Dictionary ▲
I. jail1 (
also gaol British English) /dʒeɪl/
noun [uncountable and countable][
Date: 1200-1300;
Language: Old French;
Origin: jaiole, from Latin caveola, from cavea 'cage']
a place where criminals are kept as part of their punishment, or where people who have been charged with a crime are kept before they are judged in a law court
Synonym : prison:
He’s been in jail for three months already. [TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲
prison a large building where people are kept as a punishment for a crime or while they are waiting to go to court for their trial:
He was sentenced to five years in prison. Wandsworth Prisonjail a prison, or a similar smaller building where prisoners are kept for a short time:
This old building is the jail that Butch Cassidy escaped from in 1887. He was taken to a cell in the Los Angeles County Jail. 58% of prisoners are in jail for non-violent crimes. The strikers were harassed, beaten and put in jail for trespassing. Grover got caught for not paying his taxes and was sent to jail.gaol /dʒeɪl/
British English another way of spelling
jail:
He spent the night in gaol.penitentiary /ˌpenəˈtenʃəri, ˌpenɪˈtenʃəri/
American English a large prison for people who are guilty of serious crimes:
the Ohio State Penitentiary The murderer served 10 years at the penitentiary in Stillwater. the abandoned federal penitentiary on Alcatraz Islandcorrectional facility American English formal an official word for a prison:
1,000 prisoners rioted at the North County Correctional Facility.detention centre British English,
detention center American English a place where young people who have done something illegal are kept, because they are too young to go to prison. Also used about a place where people who have entered a country illegally are kept:
Kevin, who had been abandoned by his mother, had been in and out of detention centres all his life. a juvenile detention center Harmondsworth detention centre, near Heathrow airportopen prison British English a prison in which prisoners have more freedom than in an ordinary prison, usually because their crimes were less serious:
In some open prisons, prisoners are allowed to go home at weekends.cell a small room in a prison or police station, where someone is kept as a punishment:
a prison cell Conditions were poor, and there were several prisoners to one cell.go to jail They’re going to jail for a long time.send somebody to jail The judge sent Meyer to jail for six years.put somebody in jail The government would put him in jail if he stayed in the country.throw somebody in jail (=put somebody in jail) Drunks were thrown in jail for a few days.spend time/three months/six years etc in jail Griffiths spent three days in jail after pushing a policeman.serve time/five years etc in jail (=spend time in jail) He was finally released after serving 27 years in jail.get out of jail He got out of jail after five years for armed robbery.release somebody from jail More than 30 of those arrested were released from jail for lack of evidence.escape from jail The killer has escaped from jail.the local jail The suspects were taken to the local jail.a town/city/county jail He was held without bail for thirty days in the county jail.a high-/top-/maximum-security jail Some inmates at the high-security jail had been wrongfully imprisoned.a jail sentence He’s serving a 7-year jail sentence.a jail term (=period of time in jail) He served only half of his three-month jail term.a jail cell The suspect was found dead in his jail cell. [TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲