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.