jail delivery

American  

noun

1. a liberation of persons from prison, especially by force.

2. the act of clearing a jail of prisoners by bringing them to trial, as at the assizes in England.

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jail delivery British  

noun

1. forcible and illegal liberation of prisoners from jail

2. English law (formerly) a commission issued to assize judges when they come to a circuit town authorizing them to try all prisoners and release those acquitted

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Etymology

Origin of jail delivery

late Middle English word dating back to 1425–75

Example Sentences

Shortly afterwards a jail delivery enabled him to leave prison.

From Literary Byways by Andrews, William

The wholesale jail delivery did not occur until well along into 1915.

From The Iron Heel by London, Jack

Due to the foregoing circumstances, Lanier's jail delivery was eminently successful.

From Overshadowed A Novel by Griggs, Sutton E. (Sutton Elbert)

The Fleet, King's Bench, the Marshalsea, Wood-street Compter, and Clerkenwell Bridewell, were all opened, and such a jail delivery effected as the citizens had never witnessed before.

From London in Modern Times or, Sketches of the English Metropolis during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. by Unknown

They have never had a jail delivery here, you know.

From The Land of Frozen Suns by Sinclair, Bertrand W.