prisoner

[priz-uh-ner, priz-ner]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR prisoner ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a person who is confined in prison or kept in custody, especially as the result of legal process.

prisoner of war.

a person or thing that is deprived of liberty or kept in restraint.

Origin of prisoner

1300–50; Middle English < Anglo-French. See prison, -er²

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for prisoner

hostage, convict, captive, detainee, tough, culprit, lag, loser, con, jailbird, lifer, internee, yardbird

Examples from the Web for prisoner

Contemporary Examples of prisoner

And now, similarly, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee: "Bend over and take it like a prisoner!"
Huckabee 2016: Bend Over and Take It Like a Prisoner!
Olivia Nuzzi
January 8, 2015
Clickbait title notwithstanding, Bend Over and Take It Like a Prisoner!
Huckabee 2016: Bend Over and Take It Like a Prisoner!
Olivia Nuzzi
January 8, 2015
One prisoner, who was left naked and shackled to a cold floor, died of suspected hypothermia.
What the Torture Report Kept Hidden
Shane Harris, Tim Mak
December 10, 2014
He was found guilty and sentenced to life in 1982, but released in 1985 in a prisoner exchange.
Palestinian Cabinet Member Dies in Confrontation with Israeli Soldier
Creede Newton
December 10, 2014
Apparently all of the staff had done it at some point, but as a prisoner my experience was rare.
A Million Ways to Die in Prison
Daniel Genis
December 8, 2014

Historical Examples of prisoner

But for the knowledge that he was a prisoner, Robert would have enjoyed his present situation.
Brave and Bold
Horatio Alger
Daubenton and a huissier departed with the prisoner and four gendarmes.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 327
Various
I trust that I am now the prisoner of some honorable knight or gentleman.
The White Company
Arthur Conan Doyle
Even after the shutting of the door behind the prisoner, the pause endured for some moments.
Within the Law
Marvin Dana
Mother's made a prisoner of the professor already, but he doesn't know it.
In the Midst of Alarms
Robert Barr

British Dictionary definitions for prisoner

prisoner

noun

a person deprived of liberty and kept in prison or some other form of custody as a punishment for a crime, while awaiting trial, or for some other reason

a person confined by any of various restraintswe are all prisoners of time

take no prisoners informal to be uncompromising and resolute in one's actions

take someone prisoner to capture and hold someone as a prisoner, esp as a prisoner of war

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for prisoner

"person in prison, captive person," late 14c. (earlier "a jailer," mid-13c., but this did not survive Middle English), from Old French prisonier "captive, hostage" (12c., Modern French prisonnier), from prisoun (see prison (n.)). Captives taken in war have been called prisoners since mid-14c.; phrase prisoner of war dates from 1670s (see also POW). Prisoner's dilemma attested from 1957.