prisoner

noun
/ˈpɹɪzənə/UK/ˈpɹɪzənɚ/CA

Etymology

From Middle English prisoner, from Old French prisonier (compare Medieval Latin prisōnārius), equivalent to prison + -er.

  1. derived from prisonier
  2. inherited from prisoner

Definitions

  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.
  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.
    • 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.
  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.
    • 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 freeway

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at prisoner. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01prisoner02confined03free04specified05thoroughly06thorough07detail08escape09capture10captive

A definitional loop anchored at prisoner. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

10 hops · closes at prisoner

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA