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Synonyms

make bail

Idioms  

  1. Put up security as an assurance that someone released from prison will appear for trial, as in He didn't think he could make bail for his brother. The use of bail for “security” was first recorded in 1495.

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.

The system allows wealthy defendants to purchase their freedom by making bail; poor defendants are stuck in jail even on lesser charges because they couldn’t make bail that judges may deliberately set beyond their means.

From Los Angeles Times

For more than two years they have been kept in a county jail, unable to make bail.

From BBC

“Another Wasted Life” is inspired by Kalief Browder, a New York City teenager who spent two years in solitary confinement at Rikers Island — three years in jail total — when he couldn’t make bail on a charge of stealing a backpack.

From Seattle Times

He will make bail, so he won’t be in jail.

From Seattle Times

Bogner couldn’t make bail—initially set at $150,000—so he was locked up in the Los Angeles County jail for 60 days.

From Science Magazine

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.