jail
Meanings
Plural: jails
Noun
- a correctional institution used to detain persons who are in the lawful custody of the government (either accused persons awaiting trial or convicted persons serving a sentence)
- A place or institution for the confinement of persons held against their will in lawful custody or detention, especially (in US usage) a place where people are held for minor offenses or with reference to some future judicial proceeding.
- Confinement in a jail.
- The condition created by the requirement that a horse claimed in a claiming race not be run at another track for some period of time (usually 30 days).
- In dodgeball and related games, the area where players who have been struck by the ball are confined.
- A kind of sandbox for running a guest operating system instance.
Verb
- lock up or confine, in or as in a jail
- To imprison.
Origin / Etymology
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.
Synonyms
Alcatraz, Attica, Bastille, big house, borstal, bridewell, brig, calaboose, can, chokey, choky, clink, correctional facility, correctional institution, crowbar hotel, Dartmoor, detention centre, Devil's Island, dungeon, Folsom, gaol, glasshouse, graybar hotel, guardhouse, gulag, Hanoi Hilton, hock, hole, honor farm, hoosegow, house of detention, immure, imprison, incarcerate, iron house, jail, jailhouse, joint, jug, juvenile hall, juvie, lag, Leavenworth, Lefortovo, lockup, Maze, nick, nigger university, Pelican Bay, pen, penal colony, penitentiary, pokey, poky, porridge, prison, prison camp, prison farm, prison hulk, prison ship, put away, put behind bars, queer ken, remand, remand center, roundhouse, San Quentin, Sing Sing, slam, slammer, stalag, stir, stockade, Tower, tronk, up the river, workhouse
Scrabble Score: 11
jail is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL wordjail is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
jail is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary