1 [C,U] a building where people are kept as a punishment for a crime they have committed, or while they are waiting for trial:
He was sent to prison for five years. * She is in prison, awaiting trial. * to be released from prison * a maximum-security prison * the prison population (= the total number of prisoners in a country) * the problem of overcrowding in prisons * Ten prison officers and three inmates needed hospital treatment following the riot. -< SCHOOL
2 [U] the system of keeping people in prisons:
the prison service / system * The government insists that 'prison works' and plans to introduce a tougher sentencing policy for people convicted of violent crime.
3 [C] a place or situation from which sb cannot escape:
His hospital room had become a prison.
Rate this entry
About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
This entry for prison is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Is prison a noun, verb, or something else?
In this entry, prison is tagged as noun.
Does prison appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — prison appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.