jail
- 01 B1 Intermediate
n.a building where people are kept as a punishment for a crime or while waiting for a trial.
n.a place of confinement for persons held in lawful custody, typically for minor offences or while awaiting judicial proceedings.
Simple“He spent two nights in jail after the police arrested him for the disturbance.”
In context“The suspect was held in the local jail for forty-eight hours while the prosecutor decided whether to file formal charges.”
Synonyms - 02 B2 Upper Intermediate
n.the state of being in a jail.
n.the state or condition of being confined in a correctional facility.
Simple“The judge sentenced the thief to six months of jail.”
In context“The threat of jail served as a deterrent for some, though critics argued that rehabilitation was a more effective long-term solution.”
SynonymsAntonyms - 03 C1 Advanced
n.a safe, isolated area on a computer where a program can run without affecting other parts of the system.
n.a virtualised environment that isolates a process or guest operating system from the rest of the host system for security purposes.
Simple“The administrator set up a jail to test the new software safely.”
In context“By running the web server within a jail, the administrator ensured that a potential security breach would not compromise the entire file system.”
- 04 B1 Intermediate
v.to put someone in jail.
v.to confine a person in a jail or prison facility; functions as a transitive verb.
Simple“The government decided to jail the protesters for breaking the new laws.”
In context“The court moved to jail the defendant immediately following the verdict, citing a significant risk that he might flee the country.”
Usage jailed for years · jailed after pleading
“Giribala was arrested a few days later and the mother and son remain in jail.”
“A mother who killed her three-month-old daughter with heat from a hairdryer has been jailed for six years in Scotland.”
From Middle English gayole, gaylle, gaille, gayle, gaile, from Old French gaiole, gayolle, gaole, from Medieval Latin gabiola, from Late Latin caveola (“small cage, cell”), a diminutive of Latin cavea (“cavity, coop, cage”). Doublet of caveola and related to cage. More at cajole. Fully displaced native Middle English quartern (“prison, jail, cell”), from Old English cweartern (“jail, prison”). Partially displaced native Middle English lok, from Old English loc (“enclosure, pen; jail, prison”), whence lock; and Middle English carcern, from Old English carcern, from Latin carcer (“prison, jail”). Compare these Old English words, all meaning “jail”: heaþor, heolstorloca (means also “jail cell”), clūstorloc, dung (also “dungeon”), hlinræced, nirwþ, nīedcleofa, hearmloca, and nearu.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.