incarceration
[in-kahr-suh-rey-shuh n]
- the act of incarcerating, or putting in prison or another enclosure: The incarceration rate has increased dramatically.
Show More
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for incarceration
Contemporary Examples
I also want to alert you to the broader circumstances of my incarceration.
Even when financial facilitators are arrested, incarceration is brief.
These crimes of fashion proved the men were feminine and thus gay and therefore worthy of incarceration.
Before my decade of incarceration, I had never seen a dead body.
“Incarceration is costing us a tremendous amount of money,” says Wright.
Historical Examples
Thady had borne his incarceration and distress with the greatest courage.
The Macdermots of BallycloranAnthony Trollope
But this, this was an incarceration no supplication could end, a doom not to be stayed.
Greener Than You ThinkWard Moore
I got into prison; I mean, I suffered the incarceration of freedom.
The Cause of it AllLeo Tolstoy
“Lead him,” says he, “to prison,” that is—to the incarceration of free life.
The Cause of it AllLeo Tolstoy
Tell the girls to drop in occasionally and see me in my incarceration.
When Patty Went to CollegeJean Webster
Word Origin and History for incarceration
n.
early 15c., "retention of pus," from Medieval Latin incarcerationem (nominative incarceratio), noun of action from past participle stem of incarcerare "to imprison," from in- "in" (see in- (2)) + carcer "prison, an enclosed space," from Proto-Italic *kar-kr(o)-, of uncertain origin.
It seems best to connect carcer with other IE words for 'circle, round object', such as Latin. curvus, Gr. κιρκος 'ring', OIc. hringr, although not all of these have a good IE etymology. The reduplication in Latin carcer could be iconic; thus, the original meaning would have been 'enclosure'. [de Vaan]
Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper