prisoner
Americannoun
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a person who is confined in prison or kept in custody, especially as the result of legal process.
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a person or thing that is deprived of liberty or kept in restraint.
noun
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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
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a person confined by any of various restraints
we are all prisoners of time
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informal to be uncompromising and resolute in one's actions
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to capture and hold someone as a prisoner, esp as a prisoner of war
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of prisoner
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Explanation
A prisoner is a person being held in prison as a punishment. During wartime a prisoner is someone held captive by the enemy. Alternately, if you’re so attractive you can’t leave the house, you’re a prisoner of your own good looks. Someone who's caught robbing a bank or stealing a car will probably become a prisoner, locked inside a prison for as long as the sentence specifies. If you feel stuck or confined in some way, you may consider yourself a metaphorical prisoner, like an actor who whines that he’s a prisoner of his own success, since he’s not able to go anywhere without cameras flashing and fans screaming.
Vocabulary lists containing prisoner
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.
In June 2024, Russia's Litfond auction house listed in its catalogue a second edition of Pushkin's "The Prisoner of the Caucasus", a book corresponding to a copy stolen from the BnF.
From Barron's • Jun. 9, 2026
The Prisoner could be straight out of a Godard film.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 27, 2026
The Alliance for Global Justice has been a fiscal sponsor of dozens of nonprofit efforts, including the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 10, 2025
She also did her fair share of pantomimes before her musical theatre career kicked off with a part alongside Paul O'Grady in Prisoner Cell Block H: The Musical.
From BBC • Jan. 15, 2025
Prisoner he is handcuffed to winks at camera.
From "Monster" by Walter Dean Myers
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.
