'Jail' definitions:

Definition of 'jail'

(from WordNet)
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) [syn: jail, jailhouse, gaol, clink, slammer, poky, pokey]
verb
Lock up or confine, in or as in a jail; "The suspects were imprisoned without trial"; "the murderer was incarcerated for the rest of his life" [syn: imprison, incarcerate, lag, immure, put behind bars, jail, jug, gaol, put away, remand]

Definition of 'Jail'

From: GCIDE
  • Jail \Jail\, v. t. To imprison. [R.] --T. Adams (1614). [1913 Webster]
  • [Bolts] that jail you from free life. --Tennyson. [1913 Webster] jailbird

Definition of 'Jail'

From: GCIDE
  • Jail \Jail\ (j[=a]l), 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.] [1913 Webster]
  • This jail I count the house of liberty. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'jail'

From: GCIDE
  • Gaol \Gaol\ (j[=a]l), n. [See Jail.] A place of confinement, especially for minor offenses or provisional imprisonment; a jail. [Preferably, and in the United States usually, written jail.] [1913 Webster]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]

Synonyms of 'jail'

From: Moby Thesaurus