English Dictionary: gaol | by the DICT Development Group |
3 results for gaol | |
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]: | |
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From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: | |
Jail \Jail\, n. [OE. jaile, gail, gayhol, OF. gaole, gaiole, jaiole, F. ge[93]le, LL. gabiola, dim. of gabia cage, for L. cavea cavity, cage. See {Cage}.] A kind of prison; a building for the confinement of persons held in lawful custody, especially for minor offenses or with reference to some future judicial proceeding. [Written also {gaol}.] This jail I count the house of liberty. --Milton. {Jail bird}, a prisoner; one who has been confined in prison. [Slang] {Jail delivery}, the release of prisoners from jail, either legally or by violence. {Jail delivery commission}. See under {Gaol}. {Jail fever} (Med.), typhus fever, or a disease resembling it, generated in jails and other places crowded with people; -- called also {hospital fever}, and {ship fever}. {Jail liberties}, [or] {Jail limits}, a space or district around a jail within which an imprisoned debtor was, on certain conditions, allowed to go at large. --Abbott. {Jail lock}, a peculiar form of padlock; -- called also {Scandinavian lock}. | |
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: | |
Gaol \Gaol\, n. [See {Jail}.] A place of confinement, especially for minor offenses or provisional imprisonment; a jail. [Preferably, and in the United States usually, written {jail}.] {Commission of general gaol delivery}, an authority conferred upon judges and others included in it, for trying and delivering every prisoner in jail when the judges, upon their circuit, arrive at the place for holding court, and for discharging any whom the grand jury fail to indict. [Eng.] {Gaol delivery}. (Law) See {Jail delivery}, under {Jail}. |