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