durance vile (uncountable)
- (archaic, idiomatic) A long prison sentence.
1794, Robert Burns, Epistle from Esopus to Maria:In durance vile here must I wake and weep
1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 74:Two of the tribe were captured and put in irons, Binmook and Tommy, whose photographs, taken when in durance vile, I have by me still.
1994 February 19, The Canberra Times, page 15, column 3:That is, Messrs Brown and Hinton would have been in durance vile before the issue could be litigated: the High Court does not give advisory decisions.