custodial
Americanadjective
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of or relating to custody.
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of, relating to, or appropriate to a custodian.
a building superintendent's custodial duties.
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responsible for or providing protective supervision and guardianship rather than seeking to improve or cure.
Overcrowding forces many mental hospitals to provide only custodial care.
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of custodial
Explanation
Someone whose job or task is custodial is supposed to take care of you. A babysitter's job is custodial. A guardian or caregiver of any kind has a custodial duty — he or she supervises and protects another person, usually a child. After a divorce, there's sometimes only one custodial parent, while the other only visits occasionally. When a criminal is sent to prison, it's often called a "custodial sentence," because the convicted person is being watched over and supervised in jail. The Latin root is custodia, "guarding or keeping."
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.
There is also a focus on reducing the use of custodial sentences in favour of community sentences.
From BBC • May 18, 2026
Sampson said: "Balancing these considerations in my view, including the public abhorrence to this practice, there has to be a custodial sentence."
From BBC • May 15, 2026
The message did not specify whether procedures, surgeries or imaging will be rescheduled, or detail how work including custodial services would be carried out.
From Los Angeles Times • May 13, 2026
In most cases, anyone under 18 will need a custodial account, of which there are several kinds.
From MarketWatch • May 5, 2026
Basically everybody Mr. Sager—weak maybe, same as Sabbatini, mopping up after rich kids for too many years, pension for custodial services too good to lose.
From "Burning Blue" by Paul Griffin
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.
