imprisonment

Definition

A confinement in a place, especially a prison or a jail, especially as punishment for a crime.

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman emprisonement, from Old French emprisonnement. See imprison + -ment.

Example Sentences

• "His sinews woxen weake and raw / Through long emprisonment and hard constraint."
• "Every confinement of the person is an imprisonment, whether it be in a common prison, or in a private house, or even by forcibly detaining one in the public streets."
• "Oh, by what plots, by what forswearings, betrayings, oppressions, imprisonments, tortures, poisonings, and under what reasons of state and politic subtilty, have these forenamed kings […] pulled the vengeance of God upon themselves […]"