Real-life examples: In the United States, jails are usually managed at the local level, such as by a town or county. A person who commits a minor offense such as being drunk in public or trespassing may be sentenced to spend time in a county jail.
Used in a sentence: After a wild night, the partygoers woke up the next morning in the city jail.

As a verb, jail means to imprison a person for a crime as allowed under the law. This sense specifically refers to legal imprisonment, usually by police officers, rather than by kidnapping or abduction.\n

Real-life examples: If a person is arrested by police, they are usually jailed until they are taken to trial. Depending on the judge’s ruling, they may be jailed again as punishment for a crime.
Used in a sentence: The police quickly jailed the men who were caught trying to steal a car.

Jail can easily be confused for prison, and the two are often used interchangeably when referring to lawful imprisonment in general.In the United States, a prison is managed by a state or the federal government and typically holds prisoners convicted of serious crimes who have very long sentences. Prisons are larger, usually better funded, and have much tighter security than jails. Prison can also be used more generally to refer to any place a person is confined, like a basement or in your own head. Jail is specifically a place for prisoners or people accused of crimes.Gaol is a variant spelling of jail used mostly in British English.","type":"usage-wordpress"}],"ordinal":1,"origin":{"id":"55680b1f000000025000f6f0","source":"dcom","text":"1225–75; Middle English gaiole, jaiole, jaile < Old North French gaiole, Old French jaiole cage < Vulgar Latin *gaviola, variant of *caveola, diminutive of Latin cavea cage; -ole ¹","type":"origin"},"partOfSpeechBlocks":[{"definitions":[{"id":"55680b1f000000025000f6e8","ordinal":1,"source":"random-house","text":"a prison, especially one for the detention of persons awaiting trial or convicted of minor offenses."}],"id":"55680b1f000000025000f6e5","ordinal":1,"partOfSpeech":"noun"},{"definitions":[{"id":"55680b1f000000025000f6ed","ordinal":1,"source":"random-house","text":"to take into or hold in lawful custody; imprison."}],"id":"55680b1f000000025000f6ea","ordinal":2,"partOfSpeech":"verb-transitive"}],"pronunciationSets":[{"id":"55680b1f000000025000f6e0","lang":"en","ordinal":1,"pronunciations":[{"audio":{"flac":"J00/J0014900/J0014900.flac","mpeg":"J00/J0014900/J0014900.mp3","ogg":"J00/J0014900/J0014900.ogg","wav":"J00/J0014900/J0014900.wav"},"id":"55680b1f000000025000f6e1","ipa":{"text":"dʒeɪl"},"phonetic":{"html":"jeyl","text":"jeyl"}}],"region":"us"}],"slug":"jail","source":"dcom","type":"dcom","variants":[{"commonality":2,"form":"gaol","id":"556c50570000000068009640","label":"British,","syllabicForm":"gaol","tags":[{"tag":"British","type":"geographic"}],"type":"spelling"}]}],"type":"dcom"},{"entries":[{"createDate":"2010-07-27T12:19:05Z","derivedFormSets":[{"derivedForms":[{"form":"jailless"}],"partOfSpeech":"adjective"},{"derivedForms":[{"form":"jail-like"}],"partOfSpeech":"adjective"}],"headword":{"normalizedForm":"jail","standardForm":"jail"},"id":"4c4eceb900000000fc00884d","lang":"en","modifyDate":"2010-07-27T12:19:05Z","ngrams":{"allLetters":true,"forward":"jail","groups":["a","i","j","l"],"numLetters":4,"reverse":"liaj","subwordTokens":["jail","ail","il","l"]},"normalizedLetter":"j","ordinal":1,"origin":{"source":"collins","text":"C13: from Old French jaiole cage, from Vulgar Latin caveola (unattested), from Latin cavea enclosure; see _cage : the two spellings derive from the forms of the word that developed in two different areas of France, and the spelling gaol represents a pronunciation in use until the 17th century","type":"etymology"},"partOfSpeechBlocks":[{"definitions":[{"id":"4cc4fe93c6660f3281321bdb","ordinal":1,"tags":[{"tag":"Social_Science_and_History:Law","type":"subject-field"}],"text":"a place for the confinement of persons convicted and sentenced to imprisonment or of persons awaiting trial to whom bail is not granted"},{"id":"4c2af9c678cb85bfbcad9e07","label":"informal","ordinal":2,"tags":[{"tag":"General:General_Language:General_Language_Term","type":"subject-field"}],"text":"to get out of a difficult situation"}],"ordinal":1,"partOfSpeech":"noun"},{"definitions":[{"id":"4c7e4f31fcf21edfb58cdd86","ordinal":1,"tags":[{"tag":"General:General_Language:General_Language_Term","type":"subject-field"}],"text":"(tr) to confine in prison"}],"ordinal":2,"partOfSpeech":"verb"}],"pronunciationSets":[{"ordinal":1,"pronunciations":[{"ipa":{"text":"dʒeɪl"}}]}],"slug":"jail","source":"collins","type":"british"}],"type":"british"}],"meta":{"arg":"jail","requestId":"fq85PZ3KH7RPGLmqJZ7Dd","requestStatus":"fulfilled"}},{"type":"fetchSpellSuggestions/fulfilled","payload":{"data":{"lunaWithSlug":[{"displayForm":"jail","slug":"jail"},{"displayForm":"Gail","slug":"gail"},{"displayForm":"ail","slug":"ail"},{"displayForm":"ail","slug":"ail"},{"displayForm":"bail","slug":"bail"},{"displayForm":"bail","slug":"bail"},{"displayForm":"bail","slug":"bail"},{"displayForm":"bail","slug":"bail"},{"displayForm":"bail","slug":"bail"},{"displayForm":"bail","slug":"bail"},{"displayForm":"bail","slug":"bail"}],"tunaWithSlug":[{"displayForm":"jail","slug":"jail"},{"displayForm":"ail","slug":"ail"},{"displayForm":"bail","slug":"bail"},{"displayForm":"fail","slug":"fail"},{"displayForm":"hail","slug":"hail"},{"displayForm":"mail","slug":"mail"},{"displayForm":"nail","slug":"nail"},{"displayForm":"pail","slug":"pail"},{"displayForm":"rail","slug":"rail"},{"displayForm":"sail","slug":"sail"},{"displayForm":"tail","slug":"tail"}]}},"meta":{"arg":{"word":"jail"},"requestId":"YGudyiLxd2grrY2o7MLmu","requestStatus":"fulfilled"}}]},"actionData":null,"errors":null}

jail

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