prisoner's base

American  

noun

1. any of various children's games in which each of two teams has a home base where members of the opposing team are kept prisoner after being tagged or caught and from which they can be freed only in specified ways.

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prisoner's base British  

noun

1. a children's game involving two teams, members of which chase and capture each other to increase the number of children in their own base

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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

No more worrying about Ian Forbes or the king of England or prisoner’s base.

From "Homesick" by Jean Fritz

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

Here we played hockey in winter, part of the yard being flooded for our use; and in Spring and Autumn, ball, tag, I spy, prisoner's base and other games.

From The Harbor by Poole, Ernest

A rustic play; Ð called also prisoner's base, prison base, or bars.

From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd 100 Pages) by Webster, Noah

It is impossible to talk seriously to a boy with whom one has played hat-ball and prisoner’s base, whose hair one has pulled, and who has, in retort courteous, rolled one in the dust.

From Judith of the Cumberlands by MacGowan, Alice