prisoner
nounUK /ˈpɹɪzənə/ · CA, US /ˈpɹɪzənɚ/
Etymology From Middle English prisoner, from Old French prisonier (compare Medieval Latin prisōnārius), equivalent to prison + -er.
1
A person incarcerated in a prison, while on trial or serving a sentence.
- Two other prisoners were staying in the same cell as him.
- The evidence disclosed that the three prisoners were in a public-house together with the prosecutor, Abraham Rhodes, and that in concert with the other two prisoners, the prisoner John Dewhirst placed a pencase on the table in the room where they were assembled, and left the room to get writing-paper.1861, Edward William Cox, Reports of Cases in Criminal Law:
1 more example
- American journalist Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan were among the 24 detainees released as part of a complex prisoner swap between Russia, the US and other Western nations. […] Krasikov, a former high-ranking FSB colonel serving a life sentence in a German prison, was on the top of Moscow’s list of Russian prisoners it wanted to exchange.2024 August 1, Ivana Kottasová and Anna Chernova, “Who was freed in major prisoner swap between Russia and the West?”, in CNN:
2
Any person held against their will.
- And gainſt the General we will lift our ſwords / And either lanch his greedie thirſting throat, / Or take him priſoner, and his chaine ſhall ſerue / For Manackles, till he be ranſom’d home.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:
- Captain Edward Carlisle, soldier as he was, martinet as he was, felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, her alluring smile ; he could not tell what this prisoner might do.1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
3
A person who is or feels confined or trapped by a situation or a set of circumstances.
- I am no longer a prisoner to fear, for I am a child of God.
- I'm a prisoner of your love.
1 more example
- You're not a hit and run driver, no no, racing away. You just picked up a hitcher, a prisoner of the white lines on the freeway1976, “Coyote”, in Hejira, performed by Joni Mitchell:
- Synonyms
- inmate, prisoner, guest of Her Majesty
- Derived terms
- coprisoner, ghost prisoner, non-prisoner, political prisoner, prisoner at large, prisoner exchange, prisonerlike, prisoner of conscience, prisoner of hope, prisoner of war, prisoner-of-war camp, prisoner swap, prisoner visa, Spanish prisoner, star prisoner
- Hyponyms
- detainee, ghost prisoner, lifer, political prisoner, POW, prisoner of conscience, prisoner of war