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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A place for the confinement of persons in lawful detention, especially persons awaiting trial under local jurisdiction.
  2. n. Detention in a jail.
  3. v. To detain in or as if in a jail.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A prison; a building or place for the confinement of persons arrested for crime or for debt; usually, in the United States, a place of confinement for minor offenses in a county.
  2. To confine in or as if in a jail; imprison.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A place for the confinement of persons held in lawful custody or detention, especially for minor offenses or with reference to some future judicial proceeding.
  2. n. Confinement in a jail.
  3. n. school
  4. n. The requirements that a horse claimed in a claiming race not be run at another track for (usually) 30 days.
  5. v. To imprison.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. 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.
  2. v. To imprison.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. lock up or confine, in or as in a jail
  2. n. 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)

Etymologies

  1. From Middle English jaiole (from Old French) and from Middle English gaiol, gaol (from Old North French gaiole), both from Vulgar Latin *gaviola, from Latin *caveola, diminutive of cavea, cage, hollow.

Examples

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Comments

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  • oroboros Sounds like the letters J L. Oct 28, 2009

‘jail’ has been looked up 2126 times, added to 12 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 11.