First recorded in 1715–25
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“I don’t want anyone deported until I’ve got them sentenced. And if their sentence is jail or state prison, I want them to serve their sentence,” he said in an interview last year.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
“Given the circumstances of this case and the death that resulted, we believe a state prison commitment was the appropriate and just sentence.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 2026
Under RLUIPA, Justice Neil Gorsuch writes, state prison systems that take federal money must agree not to substantially burden religious exercise.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026
Nineteen state prison systems are using digital tools and artificial intelligence from nonprofit Recidiviz to consolidate scattered prisoner data.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026
Papa looked grim, like he was driving me to the state prison, so I didn’t press him on what Mrs. had waiting for me.
From "P.S. Be Eleven" by Rita Williams-Garcia
State prison data is so difficult to access that it’s tough to calculate the country’s three-year recidivism rate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026
It begins when Brink, whose head injury in a high school football game left him with “sudden acquired savant syndrome,” is summoned to a forbidding New York State prison by its head psychologist, Thessaly Moses.
From New York Times ● Jun. 16, 2023
McCarthy was in solitary confinement for 10 years at Pelican Bay State prison and, like Ramos, wants to see the use of solitary end.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 2, 2022
State prison officials have said they cannot comment on any individual prisoner’s medical record.
From Reuters ● Apr. 9, 2020
On the 29th of October, 1819, Jesse bade Stephen a last farewell; and was transferred to the State prison, at Windsor.
From Dealings with the Dead, Volume I (of 2) by School, A Sexton of the Old
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.
