imprison

English

Alternative forms

• emprison (obsolete)

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English imprisonen, emprisounen, emprisonen, from Old French emprisonner. Equivalent to im- +‎ prison.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpɹɪzən/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪzən
• Hyphenation: im‧pris‧on

Verb

imprison (third-person singular simple present imprisons, present participle imprisoning, simple past and past participle imprisoned)

1. (transitive) To put in or as if in prison; confine somebody against their will.
   • 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 214, about Halton Holegate:

     One of the village's most notable sons was Thomas Grantham, a Baptist church leader born in 1634, who was persecuted and imprisoned in the struggle for nonconformist beliefs during the reign of Charles II.

   • 1985 December 21, Mara Math, “Fen (review)”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 23, page 15:

     None of these people has ever had what they really wanted, and if they get a glimmer of it, they back off suspiciously, failures of imagination helping to imprison them further.

   • 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 87:

     [...] demand for the boots fell sharply after the Battle of Waterloo, and Brunel was imprisoned for debt in 1821.

Usage notes

• The term to imprison implies a sentencing has taken place when used to describe actions taken by a legal system, whereas to jail may imply a temporary holding before a trial, conviction, and sentencing.

Synonyms

• bang up
• gaol, jail
• lock up
• put away
• immure
• (British, colloquial) send to the Tower
• See also Thesaurus:imprison

Derived terms

• disimprison
• imprisonable
• imprisoner
• imprisonment
• reimprison
• unimprison

Translations

put in prison

Albanian: burgos (sq) Arabic: حَبَسَ (ar) (ḥabasa), سَجَنَ (ar) (sajana) Egyptian Arabic: حبس (ḥabas) Moroccan Arabic: تحبس (taḥbas) Armenian: բանտարկել (hy) (bantarkel), կալանավորել (hy) (kalanavorel) Asturian: encarcelar Bulgarian: опандизвам (opandizvam) Catalan: empresonar (ca) Cherokee: ᎠᏍᏚᎲᏍᎦ (asduhvsga) Chinese: Mandarin: 關押 / 关押 (zh) (guānyā), 監禁 / 监禁 (zh) (jiānjìn), 下獄 / 下狱 (zh) (xiàyù), 囚禁 (zh) (qiújìn) Chukchi: ёк (jok) Czech: věznit (cs) impf, uvěznit (cs) pf Danish: fængsle (da) Esperanto: enprizonigi, malliberigi Finnish: vangita (fi) French: emprisonner (fr), mettre en prison Old French: anprisoner German: einsperren (de), einkerkern (de) Greek: φυλακίζω (el) (fylakízo) Ancient: φυλακίζω (phulakízō) Hungarian: bebörtönöz (hu) Icelandic: fangelsa (is) Indonesian: memenjarakan (id) Irish: cuir i bpríosún, cuir i ngéibheann Italian: imprigionare (it), incarcerare (it) Japanese: 刑務所に入れる (ja) (けいむしょに入れる, keimusho ni ireru), 投獄する (ja) (とうごくする, tōgoku suru), (figurative) 閉じ込める (とじこめる, tojikomeru) Korean: 투옥하다 (tuokhada) Macedonian: за́твора (zátvora) Manx: cur ayns pryssoon, pryssoonee Maori: mauhere, whakaherehere Norman: mettre en prison Norwegian: fengsle (no) Old English: hæftan, ġefæstnian Polish: więzić (pl) impf, uwięzić (pl) pf Portuguese: aprisionar (pt), prender (pt), encarcerar Romanian: întemnița (ro), încarcera (ro), închide (ro) Russian: лиша́ть свобо́ды impf (lišátʹ svobódy), заключа́ть в тюрьму́ impf (zaključátʹ v tjurʹmú), сажа́ть в тюрьму́ impf (sažátʹ v tjurʹmú) Slovak: väzniť impf, uväzniť pf Spanish: encarcelar (es), aprisionar (es) Swahili: -funga (sw) Swedish: fängsla (sv) Thai: ขัง (th) (kǎng), จำคุก (jam-kúk) Ukrainian: ув'я́знювати impf (uvʺjáznjuvaty), ув'язни́ти pf (uvʺjaznýty) Vietnamese: bỏ tù (vi) Volapük: fanäböpön (vo), fanäbükön (vo) Walloon: eprijhner (wa), resserer (wa), reclôre (wa), egayoler (wa)

Anagrams

• promisin'