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prison

DEFINITIONS OF: prison

1

n a correctional institution where persons are confined while on trial or for punishment

Synonyms:
prison house
Examples:
Newgate
a former prison in London notorious for its unsanitary conditions and burnt down in riots in 1780; a new prison was built on the same spot but was torn down in 1902
Types:
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bastille
a jail or prison (especially one that is run in a tyrannical manner)
chokey, choky
British slang (dated) for a prison
nick
(British slang) a prison
panopticon
a circular prison with cells distributed around a central surveillance station; proposed by Jeremy Bentham in 1791
state prison
a prison maintained by a state of the U.S.
Type of:
correctional institution
a penal institution maintained by the government

n a prisonlike situation; a place of seeming confinement

Synonyms:
prison house
Type of:
situation, state of affairs
the general state of things; the combination of circumstances at a given time
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