imprison
Americanverb (used with object)
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imprisons,
present (3rd person singular)
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imprisoned,
past participle, past
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imprisoning
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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imprisonernoun
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imprisonmentnoun
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reimprisonmentnoun
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reimprisonverb (used with object)
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imprisonableadjective
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unimprisonableadjective
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unimprisonedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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imprisonsimple
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imprisonssimple
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have imprisonedperfect
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has imprisonedperfect
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am imprisoningprogressive
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are imprisoningprogressive
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is imprisoningprogressive
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have been imprisoningperfect progressive
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has been imprisoningperfect progressive
Past
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imprisonedsimple
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had imprisonedperfect
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was imprisoningprogressive
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were imprisoningprogressive
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had been imprisoningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of imprison
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English enprisonen, from Old French enprisoner, equivalent to en- en- 1 + prison prison + -er infinitive suffix
Explanation
To imprison is to hold someone in a prison or jail. It can also mean to confine them elsewhere. You might imprison a classmate in a locker, for example. Cops imprison suspects who can't make bail, and someone could be imprisoned for a long time if convicted of a serious crime. Government agencies like the CIA and FBI also imprison people. However, you don't need a prison to imprison someone: a kidnapper holding people captive in the basement has imprisoned them.
Vocabulary lists containing imprison
Schooled
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"The New Colossus"
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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
I patiently explained that neither law clerks nor justices get to imprison people sua sponte.
From Slate ● Apr. 3, 2026
Mitsotakis, who notes the fraud began before he came to power in 2019, has vowed to imprison the "thieves" responsible and to reclaim the funds.
From Barron's ● Apr. 3, 2026
In America, we don’t imprison people for violating rules that were never written.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 16, 2026
To be clear, Marchan has already stated that he does not intend to imprison the president-elect.
From Salon ● Jan. 7, 2025
“Pili, in your letter, you said you were with Leanna North. The real Ella St. Clay. Where is she? Where did the Shadow Queen imprison her?”
From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova
The camera is almost always static; the frame is frozen in a way that virtually imprisons the characters, suggesting that their blinkered belief systems similarly constrain their thoughts and direct their deeds.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026
How does this good woman merit a disease that imprisons you in your own body?
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2025
Mommy Fortuna, a wizened witch voiced by the late Angela Lansbury, cages the creature in a sideshow attraction to make a buck and secure her legacy in the memory of the deathless creatures she imprisons.
From Salon ● Nov. 29, 2022
The cemetery is an oasis of peace amid the traffic that imprisons the Ostiense area.
From New York Times ● Sep. 28, 2022
Daddy imprisons himself in his room, but what else is new?
From "Like Vanessa" by Tami Charles
There is not a word about those arrested, executed or imprisoned in the gulag, the Soviet Union's vast network of prison labour camps.
From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026
A Home Office spokesman said Abdela was the 20th small boat pilot to be imprisoned in four months for endangering lives at sea.
From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026
His forebear Moses Montefiore was a British philanthropist who in 1840 helped secure the release of imprisoned Damascene Jews accused of blood libel—the false claim that Jews used Christian blood to bake matzo.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026
Not everyone we spoke to remained forever imprisoned by their so-called fans.
From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2026
Each of the three camps where they’d been imprisoned had been different, all awful, but not in exactly the same ways.
From "A Place to Belong" by Cynthia Kadohata
Buddha steps in, imprisoning Monkey under a mountain and forcing him to study sutras for 500 years.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 1, 2025
Retired tech titans and social media luminaries can no more control the development of AI by banning it than the Catholic Church could undo the fact that Earth revolves around the sun by imprisoning Galileo.
From Barron's ● Oct. 22, 2025
"Excuse me, that's incorrect. Habeas corpus is the legal principle that requires that the government provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people," Hassan said.
From Salon ● May 20, 2025
The US and many countries in Europe have repatriated citizens from Syrian detention camps before putting them on trial and imprisoning them.
From BBC ● Jan. 10, 2025
“When we lock things away,” he said with conviction, “we’re really imprisoning ourselves.”
From "Schooled" by Gordon Korman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
