INMATE


Meaning of INMATE in English

in ‧ mate /ˈɪnmeɪt/ BrE AmE noun [countable]

[ Date: 1500-1600 ; Origin: in + mate ]

someone who is being kept in a prison

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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.