PRISONER


Meaning of PRISONER in English

pris ‧ on ‧ er S3 W2 /ˈprɪz ə nə $ -ər/ BrE AmE noun [countable]

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

1 . someone who is kept in a prison as a legal punishment for a crime or while they are waiting for their ↑ trial ⇨ guard , imprison :

Relationships between the staff and the prisoners are good.

Prisoners here only serve short sentences.

remand prisoner British English (=someone who is in prison waiting for their trial)

The organization is arguing for the release of political prisoners (=people in prison because of their political opinions) .

2 . someone who is taken by force and kept somewhere SYN captive

hold/keep somebody prisoner

The guerrillas kept her prisoner for three months.

He was being held prisoner.

Our pilot was taken prisoner.

The army advanced, taking 200,000 prisoners.

3 . someone who is in a place or situation from which they cannot escape:

He is a prisoner of his own past.

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COLLOCATIONS

■ ADJECTIVES/NOUN + prisoner

▪ a remand prisoner British English (=one who is waiting for their trial)

A prison governor is refusing to accept any more remand prisoners.

▪ a condemned prisoner (=one who is going to be punished by being killed)

There is an appeal process for condemned prisoners.

▪ a political prisoner (=one who is in prison because of their political opinions)

They demanded that the military government free all political prisoners.

▪ an escaped prisoner

Soldiers arrived, looking for escaped prisoners.

■ verbs

▪ release/free a prisoner

Hundreds of prisoners were released.

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THESAURUS

▪ prisoner someone who is kept in a prison as a punishment for a crime, or while they are waiting for their ↑ trial :

Prisoners may be locked in their cells for twenty-two hours a day.

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a prisoner serving a life sentence for murder

▪ convict especially written someone who has been found guilty of a crime and sent to a prison. Convict is used especially about someone who is sent to prison for a long time. It is more commonly used in historical descriptions, or in the phrase an escaped convict :

The convicts were sent from England to Australia.

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Police were hunting for an escaped convict.

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Low-risk convicts help to fight forest fires and clean up public lands.

▪ inmate someone who is kept in a prison or a mental hospital:

Some inmates are allowed to have special privileges.

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He was described by a fellow inmate as a quiet man.

▪ captive especially literary someone who is kept somewhere and not allowed to go free, especially in a war or fighting. Captive is a rather formal word which is used especially in literature:

Their objective was to disarm the enemy and release the captives.

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She was held captive (=kept as a prisoner) in the jungle for over three years.

▪ prisoner of war a soldier, member of the navy etc who is caught by the enemy during a war and kept in the enemy’s country:

My grandad was a prisoner of war in Germany.

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They agreed to release two Iranian prisoners of war.

▪ hostage someone who is kept somewhere as a prisoner, in order to force people to agree to do something, for example in order to get money or to achive a political aim:

Diplomats are continuing their efforts to secure the release of the hostages.

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The US hostages were held in Tehran for over a year.

▪ detainee/internee someone who is kept in a prison, usually because of their political views and often without a trial:

In some cases, political detainees have been beaten or mistreated.

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23,531 people passed through the camps between 1944 and 1962, including 14,647 political internees.

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the detainees at Guantanamo Bay

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