Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Jail
Jail
(jāl)
, Noun.
[OE.
jaile
, gail
, gayhol
, OF. gaole
, gaiole
, jaiole
, F. geôle
, LL. gabiola
, dim. of gabia
cage, for L. cavea
cavity, cage. See Cage
.] A kind of prison; a building for the confinement of persons held in lawful custody, especially for minor offenses or with reference to some future judicial proceeding.
[Written also
gaol
.] This
jail
I count the house of liberty. Milton.
Jail delivery
, the release of prisoners from jail, either legally or by violence.
– Jail delivery commission
. See under
– Gaol
. Jail fever
(Med.)
, typhus fever, or a disease resembling it, generated in jails and other places crowded with people; – called also
– hospital fever
, and ship fever
. Jail liberties
, or Jail limits
a space or district around a jail within which an imprisoned debtor was, on certain conditions, allowed to go at large.
Abbott.
– Jail lock
, a peculiar form of padlock; – called also
Scandinavian lock
.Jail
,Verb.
T.
To imprison.
[R.]
T. Adams (1614).
[Bolts] that
jail
you from free life. Tennyson.
Webster 1828 Edition
Jail
JAIL
,Noun.