English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English imprisonen, emprisounen, emprisonen, from Old French emprisonner.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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imprison (third-person singular simple present imprisons, present participle imprisoning, simple past and past participle imprisoned)

  1. (transitive) To put in or as if in prison; confine somebody against their will.
    • 1985 December 21, Mara Math, “Fen (review)”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 23, page 15:
      None of these people has ever had what they really wanted, and if they get a glimmer of it, they back off suspiciously, failures of imagination helping to imprison them further.
    • 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 87:
      [...] demand for the boots fell sharply after the Battle of Waterloo, and Brunel was imprisoned for debt in 1821.

Usage notes

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The term to imprison implies a sentencing has taken place when used to describe actions taken by a legal system, whereas to jail may imply a temporary holding before a trial, conviction, and sentencing.

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