jail delivery

American  

noun

1. a liberation of persons from prison, especially by force.

2. the act of clearing a jail of prisoners by bringing them to trial, as at the assizes in England.

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jail delivery British  

noun

1. forcible and illegal liberation of prisoners from jail

2. English law (formerly) a commission issued to assize judges when they come to a circuit town authorizing them to try all prisoners and release those acquitted

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Etymology

Origin of jail delivery

late Middle English word dating back to 1425–75

Example Sentences

"There's the True Blue put on extra to-day for the jail delivery," he remarked.

From Highway Pirates or, The Secret Place at Coverthorne by Avery, Harold

Sommat like a jail delivery, eh, y'r 'onour?

From The Yeoman Adventurer by Gough, George W.

Ruffier, warden of the House of Detention, dreamed there was a jail delivery on, a general effort to escape from the prison was frustrated.

From The Secret of Dreams by Raizizun, Yacki

"If," says the Chief Justice, "we could conjure up in our minds a President willing to paralyze courts by pardoning all criminal contempts, why not a President ordering a general jail delivery?"

From The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation Annotations of Cases Decided by the Supreme Court of the United States to June 30, 1952 by Corwin, Edward Samuel

For the most of us there is no jail delivery of those inner depths, and the life above goes on to its honourable end.

From The New Machiavelli by Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)