prisoner's base
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of prisoner's base
1590–1600; compare late Middle English bace prisoner's base, perhaps from the phrase bringen bas to lay low, cause to surrender; later taken as an assimilated form of bars, plural of bar 1, or as base 1 (though the sense “goal or starting point” originated with this game)
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.
Every day we played a game called prisoner's base, which was all running and shouting and shoving and catching.
From "Homesick" by Jean Fritz
No more worrying about Ian Forbes or the king of England or prisoner’s base.
From "Homesick" by Jean Fritz
It is impossible to talk seriously to a boy with whom one has played hat-ball and prisoner’s base, whose hair one has pulled, and who has, in retort courteous, rolled one in the dust.
From Judith of the Cumberlands by MacGowan, Alice
O mental holiday, now as impossible to me as to take a true schoolboy's interest in rounders and prisoner's base!
From My Life as an Author by Tupper, Martin Farquhar
A rustic play; Ð called also prisoner's base, prison base, or bars.
From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd 100 Pages) by Webster, Noah
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.
