jailbreak

1 of 2

noun

jail·​break ˈjāl-ˌbrāk 

: a forcible escape from jail

jailbreak

2 of 2

verb

jailbroke ˈjāl-ˌbrōk  ; jailbreaking; jailbreaks

transitive verb

: to remove built-in limitations from (an electronic device, such as a cell phone)

I'm not trying to be overly snarky here, but for … in-house app distribution, I see no need or advantage to jailbreaking an iOS device.

—John Welch

Last week we learned you can jailbreak every current model of Kindle.

—Thorin Klosowski

Apple makes it nearly impossible for the average user to download apps from anywhere else unless you jailbreak your phone.

—Peter Wells

Examples of jailbreak in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

His sentence was extended by 10 months because of the jailbreak, according to Dateline. —Lynsey Eidell, PEOPLE, 18 Dec. 2025

The last inmate caught after an audacious New Orleans jailbreak was sentenced Friday to two life sentences over a 2018 double murder, with the Louisiana judge rebuking him for the disruption caused by his five months on the run. —CBS News, 12 Dec. 2025

Verb

Previous jailbreaks this year have spurred policy debates and raised questions on jail oversight and maintenance, with repercussions for public safety and criminal justice administration statewide. —Hollie Silverman, MSNBC Newsweek, 6 Dec. 2025

Crucially, this ability to jailbreak with adversarial poems isn’t just a gap in one particular software’s armor. —James Folta, Literary Hub, 21 Nov. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

Noun

1910, in the meaning defined above

Verb

2007, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for jailbreak

• awake
• backache
• beefsteak
• betake
• cheesecake
• cupcake
• daybreak
• earthquake
• eastlake
• forsake
• handshake
• headache

Kids Definition

jailbreak

noun

jail·​break -ˌbrāk 

: an escape from jail by use of force