gaol

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 5++朗文当代英语 5++LDOCE 5++朗文 5++

Related topics: Jail & punishment

gaol /dʒeɪl/ noun, verb SCJa British spelling of jail jail的英式拼法► see thesaurus at prison

gaol nounChinese

See jail for more

gaol

gaol /dʒeɪl/

a British spelling of jail

THESAURUS

   ▪ prison a large building where people are kept as a punishment for a crime or while they are waiting to go to court for their trial: He was sentenced to five years in prison. | Wandsworth Prison
   ▪ jail a prison, or a similar smaller building where prisoners are kept for a short time: This old building is the jail that Butch Cassidy escaped from in 1887. | He was taken to a cell in the Los Angeles County Jail. | 58% of prisoners are in jail for non-violent crimes. | The strikers were harassed, beaten and put in jail for trespassing. | Grover got caught for not paying his taxes and was sent to jail.
   ▪ gaol /dʒeɪl/ British English another way of spelling jail: He spent the night in gaol.
   ▪ penitentiary /ˌpenəˈtenʃəri, ˌpenɪˈtenʃəri/ American English a large prison for people who are guilty of serious crimes: the Ohio State Penitentiary | The murderer served 10 years at the penitentiary in Stillwater. | the abandoned federal penitentiary on Alcatraz Island
   ▪ correctional facility American English formal an official word for a prison: 1,000 prisoners rioted at the North County Correctional Facility.
   ▪ detention centre British English, detention center American English a place where young people who have done something illegal are kept, because they are too young to go to prison. Also used about a place where people who have entered a country illegally are kept: Kevin, who had been abandoned by his mother, had been in and out of detention centres all his life. | a juvenile detention center | Harmondsworth detention centre, near Heathrow airport
   ▪ open prison British English a prison in which prisoners have more freedom than in an ordinary prison, usually because their crimes were less serious: In some open prisons, prisoners are allowed to go home at weekends.
   ▪ cell a small room in a prison or police station, where someone is kept as a punishment: a prison cell | Conditions were poor, and there were several prisoners to one cell.

jail¹

(also gaol British English) /dʒeɪl/ noun [uncountable and countable]

Date: 1200-1300
Language: Old French
Origin: jaiole, from Latin caveola, from cavea __cage__

a place where criminals are kept as part of their punishment, or where people who have been charged with a crime are kept before they are judged in a law court
SYN prison:

He’s been in jail for three months already.

COLLOCATIONS

■ verbs
   ▪ go to jail They’re going to jail for a long time.
   ▪ send somebody to jail The judge sent Meyer to jail for six years.
   ▪ put somebody in jail The government would put him in jail if he stayed in the country.
   ▪ throw somebody in jail (=put somebody in jail) Drunks were thrown in jail for a few days.
   ▪ spend time/three months/six years etc in jail Griffiths spent three days in jail after pushing a policeman.
   ▪ serve time/five years etc in jail (=spend time in jail) He was finally released after serving 27 years in jail.
   ▪ get out of jail He got out of jail after five years for armed robbery.
   ▪ release somebody from jail More than 30 of those arrested were released from jail for lack of evidence.
   ▪ escape from jail The killer has escaped from jail.
■ ADJECTIVES/NOUN + jail
   ▪ the local jail The suspects were taken to the local jail.
   ▪ a town/city/county jail He was held without bail for thirty days in the county jail.
   ▪ a high-/top-/maximum-security jail Some inmates at the high-security jail had been wrongfully imprisoned.
■ jail + NOUN
   ▪ a jail sentence He’s serving a 7-year jail sentence.
   ▪ a jail term (=period of time in jail) He served only half of his three-month jail term.
   ▪ a jail cell The suspect was found dead in his jail cell.

THESAURUS