GAOL


Meaning of GAOL in English

I. gaol /dʒeɪl/ BrE AmE

a British spelling of ↑ jail

• • •

THESAURUS

▪ prison a large building where people are kept as a punishment for a crime or while they are waiting to go to court for their trial:

He was sentenced to five years in prison.

|

Wandsworth Prison

▪ jail a prison, or a similar smaller building where prisoners are kept for a short time:

This old building is the jail that Butch Cassidy escaped from in 1887.

|

He was taken to a cell in the Los Angeles County Jail.

|

58% of prisoners are in jail for non-violent crimes.

|

The strikers were harassed, beaten and put in jail for trespassing.

|

Grover got caught for not paying his taxes and was sent to jail.

▪ gaol /dʒeɪl/ British English another way of spelling jail :

He spent the night in gaol.

▪ penitentiary /ˌpenəˈtenʃəri, ˌpenɪˈtenʃəri/ American English a large prison for people who are guilty of serious crimes:

the Ohio State Penitentiary

|

The murderer served 10 years at the penitentiary in Stillwater.

|

the abandoned federal penitentiary on Alcatraz Island

▪ correctional facility American English formal an official word for a prison:

1,000 prisoners rioted at the North County Correctional Facility.

▪ detention centre British English , detention center American English a place where young people who have done something illegal are kept, because they are too young to go to prison. Also used about a place where people who have entered a country illegally are kept:

Kevin, who had been abandoned by his mother, had been in and out of detention centres all his life.

|

a juvenile detention center

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Harmondsworth detention centre, near Heathrow airport

▪ open prison British English a prison in which prisoners have more freedom than in an ordinary prison, usually because their crimes were less serious:

In some open prisons, prisoners are allowed to go home at weekends.

▪ cell a small room in a prison or police station, where someone is kept as a punishment:

a prison cell

|

Conditions were poor, and there were several prisoners to one cell.

II. jail 1 BrE AmE ( also gaol British English ) /dʒeɪl/ noun [uncountable and countable]

[ Date: 1200-1300 ; Language: Old French ; Origin: jaiole , from Latin caveola , from cavea 'cage' ]

a place where criminals are kept as part of their punishment, or where people who have been charged with a crime are kept before they are judged in a law court SYN prison :

He’s been in jail for three months already.

• • •

COLLOCATIONS

■ verbs

▪ go to jail

They’re going to jail for a long time.

▪ send somebody to jail

The judge sent Meyer to jail for six years.

▪ put somebody in jail

The government would put him in jail if he stayed in the country.

▪ throw somebody in jail (=put somebody in jail)

Drunks were thrown in jail for a few days.

▪ spend time/three months/six years etc in jail

Griffiths spent three days in jail after pushing a policeman.

▪ serve time/five years etc in jail (=spend time in jail)

He was finally released after serving 27 years in jail.

▪ get out of jail

He got out of jail after five years for armed robbery.

▪ release somebody from jail

More than 30 of those arrested were released from jail for lack of evidence.

▪ escape from jail

The killer has escaped from jail.

■ ADJECTIVES/NOUN + jail

▪ the local jail

The suspects were taken to the local jail.

▪ a town/city/county jail

He was held without bail for thirty days in the county jail.

▪ a high-/top-/maximum-security jail

Some inmates at the high-security jail had been wrongfully imprisoned.

■ jail + NOUN

▪ a jail sentence

He’s serving a 7-year jail sentence.

▪ a jail term (=period of time in jail)

He served only half of his three-month jail term.

▪ a jail cell

The suspect was found dead in his jail cell.

• • •

THESAURUS

▪ prison a large building where people are kept as a punishment for a crime or while they are waiting to go to court for their trial:

He was sentenced to five years in prison.

|

Wandsworth Prison

▪ jail a prison, or a similar smaller building where prisoners are kept for a short time:

This old building is the jail that Butch Cassidy escaped from in 1887.

|

He was taken to a cell in the Los Angeles County Jail.

|

58% of prisoners are in jail for non-violent crimes.

|

The strikers were harassed, beaten and put in jail for trespassing.

|

Grover got caught for not paying his taxes and was sent to jail.

▪ gaol /dʒeɪl/ British English another way of spelling jail :

He spent the night in gaol.

▪ penitentiary /ˌpenəˈtenʃəri, ˌpenɪˈtenʃəri/ American English a large prison for people who are guilty of serious crimes:

the Ohio State Penitentiary

|

The murderer served 10 years at the penitentiary in Stillwater.

|

the abandoned federal penitentiary on Alcatraz Island

▪ correctional facility American English formal an official word for a prison:

1,000 prisoners rioted at the North County Correctional Facility.

▪ detention centre British English , detention center American English a place where young people who have done something illegal are kept, because they are too young to go to prison. Also used about a place where people who have entered a country illegally are kept:

Kevin, who had been abandoned by his mother, had been in and out of detention centres all his life.

|

a juvenile detention center

|

Harmondsworth detention centre, near Heathrow airport

▪ open prison British English a prison in which prisoners have more freedom than in an ordinary prison, usually because their crimes were less serious:

In some open prisons, prisoners are allowed to go home at weekends.

▪ cell a small room in a prison or police station, where someone is kept as a punishment:

a prison cell

|

Conditions were poor, and there were several prisoners to one cell.

III. jail 2 BrE AmE ( also gaol British English ) verb [transitive]

to put someone in jail SYN imprison

jail somebody for something

Watson was jailed for tax evasion.

jail somebody for two months/six years/life etc

They ought to jail her killer for life.

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.      Longman - Словарь современного английского языка.