pris‧on S2 W2 / prɪz ə n / 名词
1 [可数和不可数名词] a building where people are kept as a punishment for a crime, or while they are waiting to go to court for their trial 同义词 jail → prisoner , imprison :
He visits his dad in prison every week.
Ricky has been out of prison for three years now.
They’ll probably put him in prison for a long time.
Helen was sent to prison for attacking a man with a knife.
The two men were arrested only a week after they were released from prison .
Three terrorists escaped from Brixton Prison .
an increase in the number of women going to prison
Mr Gunn received a ten year prison sentence . ► Do not say ‘the prison’ unless you are referring to a particular building: She was sent to prison. | He spent five years in prison. | They live opposite the prison.
2 [不可数名词] the system that deals with keeping people in a prison :
the prison service
Does prison deter criminals from offending again?
3 [可数名词] an unpleasant place or situation which it is difficult to escape from :
The farm felt like a prison for her.
COLLOCATIONS
动词
go to prison She went to prison for theft.
put somebody in prison Mentally ill people should not be put in prison.
send somebody to prison I was afraid I might get sent to prison.
be released from prison He was released from prison six weeks ago.
let somebody out of prison When’s he going to be let out of prison?
come/get out of prison The boy just come out of prison after doing two years for assault.
escape from (a) prison Blake escaped from a Missouri prison last year.
形容词
an open prison (= one where prisoners are not restricted as much as usual ) He was transferred to an open prison.
a maximum security prison He was sent to a maximum security prison where prisoners are kept in their cells almost 23 hours a day.
prison + NOUN
a prison sentence/term (= a period of time in prison as a punishment ) He is serving a four-year prison sentence.
a prison officer/official/warder/guard Last month, a prisoner attacked two prison officers with a knife.
a prison cell (= a room where a prisoner lives ) Overcrowding means that many prisoners have to share a prison cell.
the prison population (= all the prisoners in a country ) The government wants to reduce the size of the prison population.
THESAURUS
prison a large building where people are kept as a punishment for a crime or while they are waiting to go to court for their trial : He was sentenced to five years in prison. | Wandsworth Prison
jail a prison, or a similar smaller building where prisoners are kept for a short time : This old building is the jail that Butch Cassidy escaped from in 1887. | He was taken to a cell in the Los Angeles County Jail. | 58% of prisoners are in jail for non-violent crimes. | The strikers were harassed, beaten and put in jail for trespassing. | Grover got caught for not paying his taxes and was sent to jail.
gaol / dʒeɪl / British English another way of spelling jail : He spent the night in gaol.
penitentiary / penətenʃəri, penɪtenʃəri / American English a large prison for people who are guilty of serious crimes : the Ohio State Penitentiary | The murderer served 10 years at the penitentiary in Stillwater. | the abandoned federal penitentiary on Alcatraz Island
correctional facility American English formal an official word for a prison : 1,000 prisoners rioted at the North County Correctional Facility.
detention centre British English , detention center American English a place where young people who have done something illegal are kept, because they are too young to go to prison. Also used about a place where people who have entered a country illegally are kept : Kevin, who had been abandoned by his mother, had been in and out of detention centres all his life. | a juvenile detention center | Harmondsworth detention centre, near Heathrow airport
open prison British English a prison in which prisoners have more freedom than in an ordinary prison, usually because their crimes were less serious : In some open prisons, prisoners are allowed to go home at weekends.
cell a small room in a prison or police station, where someone is kept as a punishment : a prison cell | Conditions were poor, and there were several prisoners to one cell.