noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
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"serve time in jail"
"He said Robins had not been in trouble with the law before and had no previous convictions. Jail would have an adverse effect on her and her three children as she was the main carer."
"It has jailed environmental activists and is planning to limit the power of judicial oversight by handing a state-approved body a monopoly over bringing environmental lawsuits."
"By the time you get out of jail, she'll probably have gotten married."
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.
Common synonyms include: gaol, clink, jailhouse, pokey, prison, slammer.
By the time you get out of jail, she'll probably have gotten married.
Pronounced /d͡ʒeɪl/.
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.