prison
Americannoun
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a building for the confinement of persons held while awaiting trial, persons sentenced after conviction, etc.
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any place of confinement or involuntary restraint.
noun
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a public building used to house convicted criminals and accused persons remanded in custody and awaiting trial See also jail penitentiary reformatory
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any place of confinement or seeming confinement
Other Word Forms
- postprison adjective
- prisonlike adjective
Etymology
Origin of prison
before 1150; Middle English prison, earlier prisun < Old French, variant of preson imprisonment, a prison < Latin pre ( hē ) nsiōn- (stem of prehēnsiō ) a seizure, arrest, equivalent to prehēns ( us ) (past participle of prehendere to seize) + -iōn- -ion; doublet of prehension
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.
Bureau of Prisons records show that Gentile was released on Wednesday, less than two weeks after he reported to prison.
From BBC
More than 900 people were prosecuted and some went to prison.
From BBC
Earlier, the court was told Mr Williams had refused to go into the video-link room from prison.
From BBC
After his conviction, the family court judge ruled that the couple's children would be able to visit their dad in prison after he began his sentence.
From BBC
Labour MP and former minister Tulip Siddiq has been sentenced to two years in prison in Bangladesh after being put on trial in her absence alongside 16 other people over corruption allegations.
From BBC
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.
