JAIL • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Jail

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/dʒeɪl/ Listen

noun

Gaol n. (Preferably, and in the United States usually, written jail) A place of confinement, especially for minor offenses or provisional imprisonment; a jail.

Commission of general gaol delivery, an authority conferred upon judges and others included in it, for trying and delivering every prisoner in jail when the judges, upon their circuit, arrive at the place for holding court, and for discharging any whom the grand jury fail to indict. (Eng.)

Gaol delivery. (Law) See Jail delivery, under Jail.

Jail n. (Written also gaol) 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. "This jail I count the house of liberty."

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.

Jail lock, a peculiar form of padlock; called also Scandinavian lock.

verb

Jail v. t. To imprison. (R.) "(Bolts) that jail you from free life."

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Etymology of 'Jail'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Jail" Quotes from Famous Books

... be out such a day as this, with dog and gun, than eating bread and honey. I wonder if they would put you to jail or transport you here, as they would at home, for fowling ...

— The Cross and the Shamrock • Hugh Quigley

... Caliph never rejected, so he pleaded for him with the Commander of the Faithful who said, "How canst thou intercede for this pest of the human race?" Ja'afar answered, "O Commander of the Faithful, do thou imprison him; whoso built the first jail was a sage, seeing that a jail is the grave of the living and a joy for the foe." So the Caliph bade lay him in bilboes and write thereon, "Appointed to remain here until death and not to be loosed but on the corpse washer's bench;" and they cast him ...

— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 4 • Richard F. Burton

... the little town jail I saw nine prisoners of war, only two of whom were genuine Boers. Some were Scotch, some were English, some were Hollanders; and one a fiery Irishman, who expressed so fervent a wish to be free, to revel in further fightings against us, that it was deemed desirable ...

— With the Guards' Brigade from Bloemfontein to Koomati Poort and Back • Edward P. Lowry

... no more words," said he, fiercely. "I'm your master now, Leon, as I always have been. You are in my power now. You must either do as I bid you, or else go to jail. I have taken up all your notes; I have paid more than forty thousand pounds, and I now hold those notes of yours. I do not intend to let you go till you do what I wish. If you don't, I will take ...

— The Living Link • James De Mille

... lads!" she cried, in a very different tone from that which she had lately used to the soldiers. "Hold mun fast! That's the man you was a looking vor. Hold mun fast! Ah, you roog; so we've a got 'ee at last, and now 'twill be the jail and the gallows for 'ee sure enough. Ah! you may whine and guggle, but you won't get away, not this time." Her cries brought every woman in the village to the spot, and solemn were the shakings of heads, and loud the recalling of prophecies that vengeance ...

— The Drummer's Coat • J. W. Fortescue

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