parole

1
[ puh-rohl ]
See synonyms for parole on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. Penology.

    • the conditional release of a person from prison prior to the end of the maximum sentence imposed.

    • such release or its duration.

    • an official document authorizing such a release.

  2. Military.

    • the promise, usually written, of a prisoner of war, that if released they either will return to custody at a specified time or will not again take up arms against their captors.

    • (formerly) any password given by authorized personnel in passing by a guard.

  1. word of honor given or pledged.

  2. (in U.S. immigration laws) the temporary admission of non-U.S. citizens into the United States for emergency reasons or on grounds considered in the public interest, as authorized by and at the discretion of the attorney general.

verb (used with object),pa·roled, pa·rol·ing.
  1. to place or release on parole.

  2. to admit (a non-U.S. citizen) into the United States for emergency reasons or on grounds considered in the public interest: An increased number of Hungarian refugees were paroled into the United States.

adjective
  1. of or relating to parole or parolees: a parole record.

Origin of parole

1
First recorded in 1610–20; from Middle French, short for parole d'honneur “word of honor”. See parol

Other words from parole

  • pa·rol·a·ble, adjective
  • un·pa·rol·a·ble, adjective
  • un·pa·roled, adjective

Words Nearby parole

Other definitions for parole (2 of 2)

parole2
[ pa-rawl ]

nounFrench.
  1. language as manifested in the actual utterances produced by speakers of a language (contrasted with langue).

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How to use parole in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for parole

parole

/ (pəˈrəʊl) /


noun
    • the freeing of a prisoner before his sentence has expired, on the condition that he is of good behaviour

    • the duration of such conditional release

  1. a promise given by a prisoner, as to be of good behaviour if granted liberty or partial liberty

  1. a variant spelling of parol

  2. US military a password

  3. linguistics language as manifested in the individual speech acts of particular speakers: Compare langue, performance (def. 7), competence (def. 5)

  4. on parole

    • conditionally released from detention

    • informal (of a person) under scrutiny, esp for a recurrence of an earlier shortcoming

verb(tr)
  1. to place (a person) on parole

Origin of parole

1
C17: from Old French, from the phrase parole d'honneur word of honour; parole from Late Latin parabola speech

Derived forms of parole

  • parolable, adjective
  • parolee (pəˌrəʊˈliː), noun

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