PRISON

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does prison mean? 

• PRISON (noun)
  The noun PRISON has 2 senses:

1. a correctional institution where persons are confined while on trial or for punishment

2. a prisonlike situation; a place of seeming confinement

  Familiarity information: PRISON used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PRISON (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A correctional institution where persons are confined while on trial or for punishment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

prison; prison house

Hypernyms ("prison" is a kind of...):

correctional institution (a penal institution maintained by the government)

Meronyms (parts of "prison"):

cellblock; ward (a division of a prison (usually consisting of several cells))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "prison"):

bastille (a jail or prison (especially one that is run in a tyrannical manner))

chokey; choky (British slang (dated) for a prison)

nick ((British slang) a prison)

panopticon (a circular prison with cells distributed around a central surveillance station; proposed by Jeremy Bentham in 1791)

state prison (a prison maintained by a state of the U.S.)

Instance hyponyms:

Newgate (a former prison in London notorious for its unsanitary conditions and burnt down in riots in 1780; a new prison was built on the same spot but was torn down in 1902)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A prisonlike situation; a place of seeming confinement

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

prison; prison house

Hypernyms ("prison" is a kind of...):

situation; state of affairs (the general state of things; the combination of circumstances at a given time)

 Context examples 

It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in prison!

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I declare, when I got back to Sotherton yesterday, it looked like a prison—quite a dismal old prison.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The castle is a veritable prison, and I am a prisoner!

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

It was found at the soldier’s, and the soldier himself, who at the entreaty of the dwarf had gone outside the gate, was soon brought back, and thrown into prison.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

He had caused the best room in the prison to be prepared for me (wretched indeed was the best); and it was he who had provided a physician and a nurse.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

“You will find us at Dax, I doubt not, unless the prince throw me into prison, for he is very wroth against me.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Since then I have been honoured by his confidence, which has not prevented most of his plans going subtly wrong and five of his best agents being in prison.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There was a club in the prison, in which Mr. Micawber, as a gentleman, was a great authority.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It was during Jim Hall's third term in prison that he encountered a guard that was almost as great a beast as he.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

The state of being confined to jail or prison.

(Incarceration, NCI Thesaurus)