PRISON


Meaning of PRISON in English

pris ‧ on S2 W2 /ˈprɪz ə n/ BrE AmE noun

[ Word Family: noun : ↑ prison , ↑ prisoner , ↑ imprisonment ; verb : ↑ imprison ; adjective : imprisonable]

[ Date: 1100-1200 ; Language: Old French ; Origin: Latin prehensio 'act of seizing' , from prehendere ; ⇨ ↑ prehensile ]

1 . [uncountable and countable] a building where people are kept as a punishment for a crime, or while they are waiting to go to court for their ↑ trial SYN jail ⇨ prisoner , imprison :

He visits his dad in prison every week.

Ricky has been out of prison for three years now.

They’ll probably put him in prison for a long time.

Helen was sent to prison for attacking a man with a knife.

The two men were arrested only a week after they were released from prison.

Three terrorists escaped from Brixton Prison.

an increase in the number of women going to prison

Mr Gunn received a ten year prison sentence.

► Do not say ‘the prison’ unless you are referring to a particular building: She was sent to prison. | He spent five years in prison. | They live opposite the prison.

2 . [uncountable] the system that deals with keeping people in a prison:

the prison service

Does prison deter criminals from offending again?

3 . [countable] an unpleasant place or situation which it is difficult to escape from:

The farm felt like a prison for her.

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COLLOCATIONS

■ verbs

▪ go to prison

She went to prison for theft.

▪ put somebody in prison

Mentally ill people should not be put in prison.

▪ send somebody to prison

I was afraid I might get sent to prison.

▪ be released from prison

He was released from prison six weeks ago.

▪ let somebody out of prison

When's he going to be let out of prison?

▪ come/get out of prison

The boy just come out of prison after doing two years for assault.

▪ escape from (a) prison

Blake escaped from a Missouri prison last year.

■ adjectives

▪ an open prison (=one where prisoners are not restricted as much as usual)

He was transferred to an open prison.

▪ a maximum security prison

He was sent to a maximum security prison where prisoners are kept in their cells almost 23 hours a day.

■ prison + NOUN

▪ a prison sentence/term (=a period of time in prison as a punishment)

He is serving a four-year prison sentence.

▪ a prison officer/official/warder/guard

Last month, a prisoner attacked two prison officers with a knife.

▪ a prison cell (=a room where a prisoner lives)

Overcrowding means that many prisoners have to share a prison cell.

▪ the prison population (=all the prisoners in a country)

The government wants to reduce the size of the prison population.

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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.

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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.

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

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

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

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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

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The murderer served 10 years at the penitentiary in Stillwater.

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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.

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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

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

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