prisoner's base
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of prisoner's base
1590–1600; compare late Middle English bace prisoner's base, perhaps from the phrase bringen bas to lay low, cause to surrender; later taken as an assimilated form of bars, plural of bar 1, or as base 1 (though the sense “goal or starting point” originated with this game)
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.
Every day we played a game called prisoner's base, which was all running and shouting and shoving and catching.
From "Homesick" by Jean Fritz
No more worrying about Ian Forbes or the king of England or prisoner’s base.
From "Homesick" by Jean Fritz
What did a boy that had lived on Wildcat Creek, in the Indian Reserve, know about playing bull-pen, or prisoner’s base, or shinny?
From The Hoosier School-boy by Eggleston, Edward
The gunners were playing prisoner's base just beyond the guns.
From Kings, Queens and Pawns An American Woman at the Front by Rinehart, Mary Roberts
He was never a first-rate hand at marbles, or peg-top, or prisoner's base.
From The Life of Charles Dickens, Vol. I-III, Complete by Forster, John
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.
