prisoner
[priz-uh-ner, priz-ner]
- 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.
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Origin of prisoner
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for prisoner
Contemporary Examples
And now, similarly, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee: "Bend over and take it like a prisoner!"
Clickbait title notwithstanding, Bend Over and Take It Like a Prisoner!
One prisoner, who was left naked and shackled to a cold floor, died of suspected hypothermia.
He was found guilty and sentenced to life in 1982, but released in 1985 in a prisoner exchange.
Apparently all of the staff had done it at some point, but as a prisoner my experience was rare.
Historical Examples
But for the knowledge that he was a prisoner, Robert would have enjoyed his present situation.
Brave and BoldHoratio Alger
Daubenton and a huissier departed with the prisoner and four gendarmes.
I trust that I am now the prisoner of some honorable knight or gentleman.
The White CompanyArthur Conan Doyle
Even after the shutting of the door behind the prisoner, the pause endured for some moments.
Within the LawMarvin Dana
Mother's made a prisoner of the professor already, but he doesn't know it.
In the Midst of AlarmsRobert Barr
prisoner
- 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
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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
n.
"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.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper