1
as in jail
a place of confinement for persons held in lawful custody
the ongoing debate whether drug users should go to prison
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2
as in captivity
the act of confining or the state of being confined
the view that prison does nothing to cure the criminal—if anything, it makes him worse
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Recent Examples of prison
Penny still faces a charge of criminally negligent homicide, which holds a maximum of four years in prison.
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Daniel R. Depetris, Newsweek, 7 Dec. 2024
David and Louise were eventually convicted on 14 felony counts and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
—Nicholas Rice, People.com, 7 Dec. 2024
Another suspect, Gary Howard Oliva, who spent eight years in prison on child pornography charges, was first named as a person of interest in a 2002 episode of the CBS show 48 Hours Investigates.
—Emily Blackwood, People.com, 23 Nov. 2024
Trump's conviction carries a penalty of up to four years in prison, though first-time offenders normally receive lesser sentences.
—Aaron Katersky, ABC News, 22 Nov. 2024
See all Example Sentences for prison 
Daniel R. Depetris, Newsweek, 7 Dec. 2024
David and Louise were eventually convicted on 14 felony counts and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
—Nicholas Rice, People.com, 7 Dec. 2024
Another suspect, Gary Howard Oliva, who spent eight years in prison on child pornography charges, was first named as a person of interest in a 2002 episode of the CBS show 48 Hours Investigates.
—Emily Blackwood, People.com, 23 Nov. 2024
Trump's conviction carries a penalty of up to four years in prison, though first-time offenders normally receive lesser sentences.
—Aaron Katersky, ABC News, 22 Nov. 2024
See all Example Sentences for prison
Recent Examples of Synonyms for prison
Noun
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But Penny may never even spend a minute in jail for taking another man’s life.Leonard Greene, New York Daily News, 8 Dec. 2024
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Police departments in those jurisdictions generally do not help ICE carry out street-level arrests, and jails will not hold immigration violators charged with traffic offenses, or in some cases violent felonies.Nick Miroff The Washington Post, arkansasonline.com, 8 Dec. 2024
Noun
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Jia Jia, who died at 38 in 2016, is the world’s oldest-ever panda to have lived in captivity.Ryan Hogg, Fortune Asia, 3 Dec. 2024
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Some of the girls escaped captivity on their own while others were released after persistent campaigning from activist organizations such as Amnesty International.Lipi Roy, MD, Forbes, 29 Nov. 2024
Noun
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Unsurprisingly, perhaps, Hollinger’s affairs proved to be a total mess: Black was later convicted of fraud and obstruction of justice and spent more than three years in a federal penitentiary.Tad Friend, The New Yorker, 21 Oct. 2024
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From a federal penitentiary in Virginia, Jose Landa-Rodriguez reconnected with an old friend in California.Matthew Ormseth, Los Angeles Times, 5 Sep. 2024
Noun
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The challenge will be to find workers to take the jobs left behind by undocumented immigrants incarcerated in internment camps awaiting return to their home countries, or more likely, in limbo unable to return home nor to return to work given the policy implemented to try to remove them.Andy J. Semotiuk, Forbes, 29 Nov. 2024
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Chinese officials there have been accused of detaining as many as 1 million people in internment camps, which Beijing insists were reeducation camps.Billal Rahman, Newsweek, 20 Nov. 2024
Noun
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Thousands of prisoners have now been freed, many after decades of incarceration in brutal conditions.Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, 13 Dec. 2024
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On another wall were carved prisoners’ names, birthplaces and dates of incarceration.Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times, 12 Dec. 2024
Noun
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That group should start with the nearly 1,500 prisoners who are currently on home confinement under the CARES Act.Walter Pavlo, Forbes, 3 Dec. 2024
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He is being held in pretrial confinement and is awaiting a preliminary hearing.CBS News, CBS News, 31 Oct. 2024
Thesaurus Entries Near prison
Cite this Entry
“Prison.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/prison. Accessed 18 Dec. 2024.
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