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jail - 6 dictionary results
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jail
[
jeyl] 
–noun
| 1. | a prison, esp. one for the detention of persons awaiting trial or convicted of minor offenses. |
–verb (used with object)
| 2. | to take into or hold in lawful custody; imprison. |
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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|
Link To jail
| jail (jāl) n.
To detain in or as if in a jail. [From Middle English jaiole (from Old French) and from Middle English gaiol, gaol (from Old North French gaiole), both from Vulgar Latin *gaviola, from Latin *caveola, diminutive of cavea, cage, hollow.] |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Jail
Jail\, n. [OE. jaile, gail, gayhol, OF. gaole, gaiole, jaiole, F. ge[^o]le, LL. gabiola, dim. of gabia cage, for L. cavea cavity, cage. See Cage.] A kind of prison; a building for the confinement of persons held in lawful custody, especially for minor offenses or with reference to some future judicial proceeding. [Written also gaol.] This jail I count the house of liberty. --Milton. Jail bird, a prisoner; one who has been confined in prison. [Slang] Jail delivery, the release of prisoners from jail, either legally or by violence. Jail delivery commission. See under Gaol. Jail fever (Med.), typhus fever, or a disease resembling it, generated in jails and other places crowded with people; -- called also hospital fever, and ship fever. Jail liberties, or Jail limits, a space or district around a jail within which an imprisoned debtor was, on certain conditions, allowed to go at large. --Abbott. Jail lock, a peculiar form of padlock; -- called also Scandinavian lock.Jail
Jail\, v. t. To imprison. [R.] --T. Adams (1614). [Bolts] that jail you from free life. --Tennyson.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : jail
Spanish:
cárcel, prisión,
German:
das Gefängnis,
Japanese:
刑務所
jail
c.1275, gayhol, from O.N.Fr. gaiole and O.Fr. jaole, both meaning "a cage, prison," from M.L. gabiola, from L.L. caveola, dim. of L. cavea "cage." Both forms carried into M.E.; now pronounced "jail" however it is spelled. Norman-derived gaol (preferred in Britain) is "chiefly due to statutory and official tradition" [OED]. The verb "to put in jail" is from 1604. Jailbird is 1603, an allusion to a caged bird. Jail-break "prison escape" is from 1910. Jail bait "girl under the legal age of consent" is attested from 1934.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Main Entry: jail
Pronunciation: 'jAl
Function: noun
: a place of confinement for persons held in lawful custody; specifically : such a place under the jurisdiction of a local government (as a county) for the confinement of persons awaiting trial or those convicted of minor crimes —compare HOUSE OF CORRECTION, HOUSE OF DETENTION, LOCKUP, PENITENTIARY, PRISON —jail transitive verb
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law, © 1996 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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