Jail
Jail (jāl) , noun
[Old English jaile, gail, gayhol, Old French gaole, gaiole, jaiole, French geôle, Late Latin gabiola, dim. of gabia cage, for Latin 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.
This jail I count the house of liberty.
Collocations (5)
Jail delivery , the release of prisoners from jail, either legally or by violence.
Jail delivery commission , See under Gaol.
Jail fever (Medicine) , 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.
Jail , transitive verb
To imprison. [Rare] — T. Adams (1614)
[Bolts] that jail you from free life.