english
1
general::
prison
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.
transnet.ir
2
general::
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. • 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. • He was taken to a cell in the Los Angeles County Jail. • 58% of prisoners are in jail for non-violent crimes. • The strikers were harassed, beaten and put in jail for trespassing. • Grover got caught for not paying his taxes and was sent to jail.
gaol
British English another way of spelling jail:
• He spent the night in gaol.
penitentiary
American English a large prison for people who are guilty of serious crimes:
• the Ohio State Penitentiary • The murderer served 10 years at the penitentiary in Stillwater. • 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. • a juvenile detention center • 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 • Conditions were poor, and there were several prisoners to one cell.
Longman-Thesaurus
3
general::
noun
penitentiary:
She was put into prison for the crime.
Simple Definitions
4
general::
noun ADJ. local | overcrowded | high-security, maximum-security, top-security | closed | open Open prisons prepare prisoners for life back in the community. | private | women's | debtors' (historical) | military VERB + PRISON go to He went to prison for tax evasion. | put sb in, send sb to, throw sb into She was sent to prison for leaking state secrets. He was immediately seized and thrown into prison. | be discharged from, be released from, come out of, get out of When did he get out of prison? | escape from A dangerous criminal has escaped from a high-security prison. | avoid, escape You only escaped prison (= escaped being sent to prison) because of your previous good character. | face She was told by magistrates she could now face prison. PRISON + NOUN sentence, term | cell, hospital | conditions | population | authorities, governor, inmate, officer, staff, warder | service, system PREP. at a/the~ The police are investigating disturbances at the prison. | in (a/the) ~ How long has her father been in prison? There have been riots in the prison.
Oxford Collocations Dictionary