prison
Americannoun
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a building for the confinement of persons held while awaiting trial, persons sentenced after conviction, etc.
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any place of confinement or involuntary restraint.
noun
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a public building used to house convicted criminals and accused persons remanded in custody and awaiting trial See also jail penitentiary reformatory
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any place of confinement or seeming confinement
Other Word Forms
- postprison adjective
- prisonlike adjective
Etymology
Origin of prison
before 1150; Middle English prison, earlier prisun < Old French, variant of preson imprisonment, a prison < Latin pre ( hē ) nsiōn- (stem of prehēnsiō ) a seizure, arrest, equivalent to prehēns ( us ) (past participle of prehendere to seize) + -iōn- -ion; doublet of prehension
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.
His Russian has improved in prison, where it is a lingua franca among the inmates.
From Barron's
At the time he was sentenced to two years in prison, reduced to nine months on appeal.
From BBC
More than 900 people were prosecuted, and some went to prison, in what has been called the one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British legal history.
From BBC
After serving about 16 years in federal prison for racketeering, Villalba ended up living in a collection of tents along the railroad tracks that run beneath the 91 Freeway.
From Los Angeles Times
Lord Haldane adjourned sentence on her for the preparation of a background report and told her she would continue to be remanded in prison.
From BBC
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.
