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Definition of jail verb from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

jail

verb
 
/dʒeɪl/
 
/dʒeɪl/
(also British English, old-fashioned gaol)
[usually passive]
Verb Forms
present simple I / you / we / they jail
 
/dʒeɪl/
 
/dʒeɪl/
he / she / it jails
 
/dʒeɪlz/
 
/dʒeɪlz/
past simple jailed
 
/dʒeɪld/
 
/dʒeɪld/
past participle jailed
 
/dʒeɪld/
 
/dʒeɪld/
-ing form jailing
 
/ˈdʒeɪlɪŋ/
 
/ˈdʒeɪlɪŋ/
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  1. to put somebody in prison synonym imprison
    • be jailed (for something) He was jailed for life for murder.
    Extra Examples
    • She was jailed for ten years.
    • One man was arrested and jailed for biting a police officer.
    Topics Crime and punishmentb2
    Oxford Collocations DictionaryJail is used with these nouns as the object:
    • dissident
    See full entry
    Word OriginMiddle English: based on Latin cavea. The word came into English in two forms, jaiole from Old French and gayole from Anglo-Norman French gaole (surviving in the spelling gaol), originally pronounced with a hard g, as in goat.
See jail in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary

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halfway
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