jail

American  

[jeyl] / dʒeɪl /

British, gaol

noun

• jails
  plural

1. a prison, especially one for the detention of persons awaiting trial or convicted of minor offenses.

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verb (used with object)

• jails,
  present (3rd person singular)
• jailed,
  past participle,  past
• jailing
  present participle

1. to take into or hold in lawful custody; imprison.

jail British  

/ dʒeɪl /

noun

1. a place for the confinement of persons convicted and sentenced to imprisonment or of persons awaiting trial to whom bail is not granted

2. informal to get out of a difficult situation

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verb

1. (tr) to confine in prison

Usage

What is a basic definition of jail? A jail is a building that houses prisoners and people accused of crimes, especially minor crimes. Jail also means to imprison for committing a crime or to lawfully detain a person. A jail is a building where criminals or people accused of crimes are housed. Jails are usually small buildings that keep prisoners only until they go to trial or for criminals with short punishments. Typically, a prisoner only spends around 90 days in a jail. A person accused of a more serious crime may be kept in a jail until their trial or until they are transferred to a larger facility. The phrase “in jail” often means a person is spending time in a jail. A person who manages a jail or puts a person in a jail is called a jailer.

• Real-life examples: In the United States, jails are usually managed at the local level, such as by a town or county. A person who commits a minor offense such as being drunk in public or trespassing may be sentenced to spend time in a county jail.
• Used in a sentence: After a wild night, the partygoers woke up the next morning in the city jail.

As a verb, jail means to imprison a person for a crime as allowed under the law. This sense specifically refers to legal imprisonment, usually by police officers, rather than by kidnapping or abduction.

• Real-life examples: If a person is arrested by police, they are usually jailed until they are taken to trial. Depending on the judge’s ruling, they may be jailed again as punishment for a crime.
• Used in a sentence: The police quickly jailed the men who were caught trying to steal a car.

Jail can easily be confused for prison, and the two are often used interchangeably when referring to lawful imprisonment in general. In the United States, a prison is managed by a state or the federal government and typically holds prisoners convicted of serious crimes who have very long sentences. Prisons are larger, usually better funded, and have much tighter security than jails. Prison can also be used more generally to refer to any place a person is confined, like a basement or in your own head. Jail is specifically a place for prisoners or people accused of crimes. Gaol is a variant spelling of jail used mostly in British English.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• rejail
  verb (used with object)
• jail-like
  adjective
• jailable
  adjective
• jailless
  adjective
• jaillike
  adjective
• nonjailable
  adjective
• unjailed
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• jails
  plural

Participles

• jailing
  present
• jailed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• jail
  simple
• jails
  simple
• have jailed
  perfect
• has jailed
  perfect
• am jailing
  progressive
• are jailing
  progressive
• is jailing
  progressive
• have been jailing
  perfect progressive
• has been jailing
  perfect progressive

Past

• jailed
  simple
• had jailed
  perfect
• was jailing
  progressive
• were jailing
  progressive
• had been jailing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will jail
  simple
• will have jailed
  perfect
• will be jailing
  progressive
• will have been jailing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of jail

1225–75; Middle English gaiole, jaiole, jaile < Old North French gaiole, Old French jaiole cage < Vulgar Latin *gaviola, variant of *caveola, diminutive of Latin cavea cage; see -ole ¹

Explanation

A jail is a place where people are confined while they're being punished for a crime. If you end up getting a mug shot and put behind bars, chances are you are In jail. To arrest someone and put them in a jail cell is to jail them. Jail prisoners are often simply waiting for their trials — they've been charged with a crime, but they haven't yet been found to be guilty (or innocent). Jail was originally spelled gayhol, and in Britain it's also spelled gaol. This can be traced back to the Medieval Latin gabiola, from Late Latin caveola and the Latin cavea, "cage or enclosure."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

jail jails jailed jailing

For instance, you can drive an off-road vehicle at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, but off-roading in Yosemite could land you in jail.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026

The prime minister is looking at ways to keep them in jail.

From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026

In July he learned that any further attempt to challenge the Kremlin could land him in jail.

From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026

He has inaccurately told aides that all of his predecessors had journalists thrown in jail for not revealing their sources and that his team should be more aggressive.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026

Languishing in jail, still wearing his wool suit, Apollinaire was charged with the theft of the Mona Lisa.

From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day

The Estonian government has rejected the idea of taking prisoners from the UK to help ease the overcrowding crisis in British jails.

From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026

The prison housed 4,100 inmates, about four times its capacity, an issue common across the country's jails.

From Barron's ● Aug. 2, 2026

Meanwhile, thousands more are waiting in county jails for cases that are winding through a new, convoluted and confusing system where geography controls the rules.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026

Crisscrossing the country — from his hometown in Virginia to California, Florida and Maryland — Truelove moved between the streets, jails, homeless shelters and psychiatric facilities.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026

It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela

According to the memo, Randall gave birth to Jester while she was jailed on homicide charges.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026

During that arrest, Beverly Hills officers learned she had removed her court-ordered GPS monitoring ankle bracelet, leading her to be jailed.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026

Russia has released a former US Marine who was jailed in 2022 and was reportedly in extremely poor health.

From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026

Last year the PKK announced plans to disband and disarm, following a call from its jailed founder and longtime leader Ocalan.

From Barron's ● Aug. 9, 2026

He was less troubled by the closeness of his cell walls with the naked light put out, less conscious that he was jailed.

From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in 2024 that Canberra was "gravely concerned" about the jailing of Ng and other Hong Kong activists.

From Barron's ● Feb. 23, 2026

Aside from jailing the coxswains, Hong Kong courts previously handed prison sentences to two government ship inspectors who failed to ensure lifejacket compliance.

From Barron's ● Jan. 21, 2026

It costs the taxpayer more than £52,000 per prisoner every year, so supporters of the government's position say there's a clear money-saving win through not jailing them in the first place.

From BBC ● Nov. 25, 2025

"It was first disbelief," he said, when he first saw reports of her jailing.

From BBC ● Nov. 14, 2025

But I wanted to like it, because gallery work was the essential job of jailing.

From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover

Related Words

• confine
• detain
• hold
• imprison
• lock up
• sentence
• take away