 6 definitions found
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
prison
noun
1: a correctional institution where persons are confined while
on trial or for punishment [syn: {prison house}]
2: a prisonlike situation; a place of seeming confinement [syn:
{prison house}]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Prison \Pris"on\, verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Prisoned}; p. pr. & vb.
n. {Prisoning}.]
1. To imprison; to shut up in, or as in, a prison; to
confine; to restrain from liberty.
The prisoned eagle dies for rage. --Sir W.
Scott.
His true respect will prison false desire. --Shak.
2. To bind (together); to enchain. [Obs.]
Sir William Crispyn with the duke was led
Together prisoned. --Robert of
Brunne.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Prison \Pris"on\ (?; 277), noun [F., fr. L. prehensio, prensio, a
seizing, arresting, fr. prehendre, prendere, to lay hold of,
to seize. See {Prehensile}, and cf. {Prize}, noun,
{Misprision}.]
1. A place where persons are confined, or restrained of
personal liberty; hence, a place or state o? confinement,
restraint, or safe custody.
Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy
name. --Ps. cxlii.
7.
The tyrant [AE]olus, . . .
With power imperial, curbs the struggling winds,
And sounding tempests in dark prisons binds.
--Dryden.
2. Specifically, a building for the safe custody or
confinement of criminals and others committed by lawful
authority.
{Prison bars}, or {Prison base}. See {Base}, noun, 24.
{Prison breach}. (Law) See Note under 3d {Escape}, noun, 4.
{Prison house}, a prison. --Shak.
{Prison ship} (Naut.), a ship fitted up for the confinement
of prisoners.
{Prison van}, a carriage in which prisoners are conveyed to
and from prison.
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
67 Moby Thesaurus words for "prison":
POW camp, bastille, big house, black hole, borstal,
borstal institution, bridewell, brig, calaboose, can, cell, chokey,
clink, concentration camp, condemned cell, confine, confinement,
constrain, cooler, death cell, death house, death row, detention,
detention camp, dungeon, federal prison, forced-labor camp, gaol,
glasshouse, guardhouse, hoosegow, house of correction,
house of detention, immure, incarcerate, industrial school, intern,
internment camp, jail, jailhouse, jug, keep, labor camp, lockup,
maximum-security prison, minimum-security prison, oubliette, pen,
penal colony, penal institution, penal settlement, penitentiary,
pokey, poky, prison camp, prisonhouse, quod, reform school,
reformatory, slammer, sponging house, state prison, stir, stockade,
the hole, tollbooth, training school
From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:
PRISON, noun A place of punishments and rewards. The poet assures us
that --
"Stone walls do not a prison make,"
but a combination of the stone wall, the political parasite and the
moral instructor is no garden of sweets.
From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:
Prison
The first occasion on which we read of a prison is in the
history of Joseph in Egypt. Then Potiphar, "Joseph's master,
took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the king's
prisoners were bound" (Gen. 39:20-23). The Heb. word here used
(sohar) means properly a round tower or fortress. It seems to
have been a part of Potiphar's house, a place in which state
prisoners were kept.
The Mosaic law made no provision for imprisonment as a
punishment. In the wilderness two persons were "put in ward"
(Lev. 24:12; Num. 15:34), but it was only till the mind of God
concerning them should be ascertained. Prisons and prisoners are
mentioned in the book of Psalms (69:33; 79:11; 142:7). Samson
was confined in a Philistine prison (Judg. 16:21, 25). In the
subsequent history of Israel frequent references are made to
prisons (1 Kings 22:27; 2 Kings 17:4; 25:27, 29; 2 Chr. 16:10;
Isa. 42:7; Jer. 32:2). Prisons seem to have been common in New
Testament times (Matt. 11:2; 25:36, 43). The apostles were put
into the "common prison" at the instance of the Jewish council
(Acts 5:18, 23; 8:3); and at Philippi Paul and Silas were thrust
into the "inner prison" (16:24; comp. 4:3; 12:4, 5).
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