Prison

7 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Prison \Pris"on\ (?; 277), n. [F., fr. L. prehensio, prensio, a
     seizing, arresting, fr. prehendre, prendere, to lay hold of,
     to seize. See {Prehensile}, and cf. {Prize}, n.,
     {Misprision}.]
     1. A place where persons are confined, or restrained of
        personal liberty; hence, a place or state o? confinement,


        restraint, or safe custody.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy
              name.                                 --Ps. cxlii.
                                                    7.
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              The tyrant Aeolus, . . .
              With power imperial, curbs the struggling winds,
              And sounding tempests in dark prisons binds.
                                                    --Dryden.
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     2. Specifically, a building for the safe custody or
        confinement of criminals and others committed by lawful
        authority.
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     {Prison bars}, or {Prison base}. See {Base}, n., 24.
  
     {Prison breach}. (Law) See Note under 3d {Escape}, n., 4.
  
     {Prison house}, a prison. --Shak.
  
     {Prison ship} (Naut.), a ship fitted up for the confinement
        of prisoners.
  
     {Prison van}, a carriage in which prisoners are conveyed to
        and from prison.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Prison \Pris"on\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Prisoned}; p. pr. & vb.
     n. {Prisoning}.]
     1. To imprison; to shut up in, or as in, a prison; to
        confine; to restrain from liberty.
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              The prisoned eagle dies for rage.     --Sir W.
                                                    Scott.
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              His true respect will prison false desire. --Shak.
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     2. To bind (together); to enchain. [Obs.]
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              Sir William Crispyn with the duke was led
              Together prisoned.                    --Robert of
                                                    Brunne.
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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  prison
       n 1: a correctional institution where persons are confined while
            on trial or for punishment [syn: {prison house}]
       2: a prisonlike situation; a place of seeming confinement [syn:
           {prison house}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  67 Moby Thesaurus words for "prison":
     POW camp, bastille, big house, black hole, borstal,
     borstal institution, bridewell, brig, calaboose, can, cell, chokey,
     clink, concentration camp, condemned cell, confine, confinement,
     constrain, cooler, death cell, death house, death row, detention,
     detention camp, dungeon, federal prison, forced-labor camp, gaol,
     glasshouse, guardhouse, hoosegow, house of correction,
     house of detention, immure, incarcerate, industrial school, intern,
     internment camp, jail, jailhouse, jug, keep, labor camp, lockup,
     maximum-security prison, minimum-security prison, oubliette, pen,
     penal colony, penal institution, penal settlement, penitentiary,
     pokey, poky, prison camp, prisonhouse, quod, reform school,
     reformatory, slammer, sponging house, state prison, stir, stockade,
     the hole, tollbooth, training school
  
  

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Prison
     The first occasion on which we read of a prison is in the
     history of Joseph in Egypt. Then Potiphar, "Joseph's master,
     took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the king's
     prisoners were bound" (Gen. 39:20-23). The Heb. word here used
     (sohar) means properly a round tower or fortress. It seems to
     have been a part of Potiphar's house, a place in which state
     prisoners were kept.
     
       The Mosaic law made no provision for imprisonment as a
     punishment. In the wilderness two persons were "put in ward"
     (Lev. 24:12; Num. 15:34), but it was only till the mind of God
     concerning them should be ascertained. Prisons and prisoners are
     mentioned in the book of Psalms (69:33; 79:11; 142:7). Samson
     was confined in a Philistine prison (Judg. 16:21, 25). In the
     subsequent history of Israel frequent references are made to
     prisons (1 Kings 22:27; 2 Kings 17:4; 25:27, 29; 2 Chr. 16:10;
     Isa. 42:7; Jer. 32:2). Prisons seem to have been common in New
     Testament times (Matt. 11:2; 25:36, 43). The apostles were put
     into the "common prison" at the instance of the Jewish council
     (Acts 5:18, 23; 8:3); and at Philippi Paul and Silas were thrust
     into the "inner prison" (16:24; comp. 4:3; 12:4, 5).
     

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  PRISON. A legal prison is the building designated by law, or used by the 
  sheriff, for the confinement, or detention of those whose persons are 
  judicially ordered to be kept in custody. But in cases of necessity, the 
  sheriff may make his own house, or any other place, a prison. 6 John. R. 22. 
  2. An illegal prison is one not authorized by law, but established by 
  private authority; when the confinement is illegal, every place where the 
  party is arrested is a prison; as, the street, if he be detained in passing 
  along. 4 Com. Dig. 619; 2 Hawk. P. C. c. 18, s. 4; 1 Buss. Cr. 378; 2 Inst. 
  589. 
  
  

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  PRISON, n.  A place of punishments and rewards.  The poet assures us
  that --
  
      "Stone walls do not a prison make,"
  
  but a combination of the stone wall, the political parasite and the
  moral instructor is no garden of sweets.