jailbreak
Americannoun
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an escape from prison, especially by forcible means.
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Digital Technology.
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an instance of gaining access to the operating system of a smartphone, tablet, etc., especially one manufactured by Apple.
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a software program or piece of hardware used to accomplish this.
You'll need a jailbreak to run unauthorized apps.
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an instance of circumventing restrictions on access to any computer system or digital content.
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verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of jailbreak
Explanation
A jailbreak is a prison escape. Whenever someone who's incarcerated or locked up manages to get out illegally, that's a jailbreak. Prison security, from armed guards to razor wire, locks, and security cameras, means that jailbreaks don't happen often. These days it's more common to use this word to talk about computers or smartphones. When a hacker performs a jailbreak on one of these devices, she bypasses the manufacturer's restrictions so that even unauthorized software can be installed.
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:
Anthropic said on Friday that it had only received "verbal evidence" of the purported jailbreak vulnerability.
From BBC ● Jun. 15, 2026
The vulnerabilities don’t represent a full so-called jailbreak, a point of view shared by some security researchers familiar with Amazon’s research.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 14, 2026
“We disagree that the finding of a narrow potential jailbreak should be cause for recalling a commercial model deployed to hundreds of millions of people,” Anthropic said in its website post.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 14, 2026
“We suspect that perfect jailbreak resistance is not currently possible for any model provider,” that blog post noted.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 13, 2026
Whenever we get a jailbreak, Paul, aka Thing Three, streaks around the gym with both arms up yelling “Blue Team! It’s what’s for breakfast!”
From "Liar & Spy" by Rebecca Stead
We have only one path forward: build a more capable American open-weight alternative that withstands attempted jailbreaks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
It’s whether, at the checkout aisle in Walmart, there’s a hang rack with a little 99-cent device that jailbreaks your iPhone and installs another app store.
From Slate ● Oct. 13, 2025
The interior minister said this was partly responsible for the frequent jailbreaks.
From BBC ● Jan. 18, 2022
There are more than 20 red meat slaughter houses in New York City, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, and jailbreaks do happen.
From New York Times ● Mar. 1, 2017
In his note, Hotz said cryptically, “The exploits won’t be usable next time. No more jailbreaks ever?”
From Washington Post ● Jan. 1, 2014
The Army’s jailbreaking initiative means the service can now get real-time telemetry data from Abrams tanks and Stryker vehicles, said Dave Paddock, the president of General Dynamics Land Systems.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026
Although most people use their tablets for what they are intended—communication, education, and entertainment—prison officials and opponents of tech inside prison have used jailbreaking as an excuse to terminate personal electronic devices altogether.
From Slate ● Dec. 14, 2023
Some people use jailbreaking for sketchy purposes, yet others deploy it to elicit more creative answers.
From Scientific American ● May 11, 2023
It also grants jailbreaking exceptions for video streaming devices like the Apple TV and for routers and other networking hardware, as long as it’s not done to access pirated media.
From The Verge ● Oct. 27, 2021
As always with jailbreaking, you proceed at your own risk.
From Forbes ● Jun. 27, 2014
In response, some users who were trying to find ways to mask this data from the app rooted or jailbroke their phones to fake GPS sensor data—which actually put them at even greater risk.
From Slate ● Feb. 28, 2018
This time, Brown jailbroke Stapel’s memoir by translating it into English and posting the document on a public website.
From Science Magazine ● Feb. 14, 2018
A model can’t be jailbroken into revealing dangerous knowledge if its weights haven’t encoded that knowledge.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
In practice, this means confiscating jailbroken tablets through a system designed to isolate tampered devices.
From Slate ● Dec. 14, 2023
Cydia emerged before the Apple App Store even existed, and allowed users to find and download third-party apps for jailbroken devices.
From The Verge ● May 29, 2022
This is especially true if your phone is jailbroken.
From Fox News ● Aug. 7, 2021
Symantec also found seven new threats aimed at Apple's mobile iOS platform, with jailbroken devices - those that have been unlocked - being particularly vulnerable.
From BBC ● Dec. 11, 2015
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.
