jail

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“
I decided he was probably in jail, but I didn’t know.

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Definitions (11)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

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

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (4)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

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Examples

  • I decided he was probably in jail, but I didn’t know. —  Hayden's Ferry Review Issue 45
  • She looked around uncertainly, with almost a touch of panic, then spotted Omar's huge frame and pulled him from his seat, tugging him into the patterned chaos, whooping with glee. —  The Legacy of Heorot
  • John lowered himself into the tub, keeping his cast out of the water. —  The Witness
  • You'd never believe how noisy a jail is at night. " —  The Missing Hour
  • The street and the jail are the factories.” —  The Making of an American
 

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Words tagged jail

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Jail has been looked up 212 times, favorited 0 times, listed 8 times, and commented on once.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  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.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Two series of forms are to be distinguished: (1) English jail, from Middle English jayle, jaile, jayll, jaiole, from Old French jaiole, jaole, jeoille, geole, geolle, French geôle; assibilated form of (2) English*gail, representing by the artificial form gaol, formerly also spelled goal, used in old law-books and preserved archaically in print, though obsolete in pronunciation (gaol, properly pron. gāl, being always pron. jāl, which pronunciation belongs only to the spelling jail), from Middle English gaile, gayl, gayhol, from Old French gaiole, gayolle, gaole, gaolle (whence the form gaol above), a cage, a prison, = Spanish gayola = Portuguese gaiola, jaula = Italian gabbiuola, gabbiola (also in simple form gabbia), a cage, Middle Latin reflex gabiola (also in simple form gabia), a cage, the properly L. type being *caveola, diminutive of cavea, a hollow, a cavity, a cage, coop: see cave, cage, and gabion.
  2. Formerly also gaol and goal; from jail, n.
 

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/dʒeɪl/
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