imprison

imprison, incarcerate, jail, immure, intern mean to confine closely so that escape is impossible or unlikely. The first three words imprison, incarcerate, jail imply a shutting up in or as if in a prison, imprison being the general term, incarcerate the bookish or journalistic term, and jail the common word.

Distinctively, imprison implies seizure and detention in custody and is applicable even when the one confined is not in a prison or jail or suffering a penalty

{

deftly and with one arm only, he imprisoned her— Ertz

}

{

the tremendous forces imprisoned in minute particles of matter— Inge

}

Incarcerate implies a shutting up in or as if in a prison cell

{

he easily obtained bail and will, in all probability, not be incarcerated before his trial

}

{

we got the bride and bridegroom quietly away . . . having incarcerated all the newspaper reporters in the little drawing room— Sayers

}

Jail may be preferred to incarcerate as a simpler and more generally intelligible term

{

risked being jailed for life

}

Often, however, jail, the verb, following jail, the noun, in its accepted sense connotes imprisonment in a building in which persons are held for short periods, either paying the penalty for minor offenses or for the purpose of awaiting legal proceedings.

Immure is a literary rather than technical term. When it implies punishment for a crime, it may connote burial alive within a wall; usually, however, the term suggests restriction to closely confined quarters typically as a captive or a devotee to duty or to religion

{

Constance was now immured with her father, it being her "turn" to nurse— Bennett

}

{

a convent of nuns vowed to contemplation, who were immured there for life, and never went outside the convent walls— L. P. Smith

}

Intern is used chiefly of military or wartime conditions; it seldom implies incarceration and usually suggests a keeping within prescribed limits (as in a guarded camp) and under severe restraints

{

intern all enemy aliens for the duration of a war

}

{

intern all the war refugees entering a neutral country

}

{

the plane was landed safely and the crew was interned— Lawson

}

Analogous words: confine, circumscribe, restrict, *limit: *restrain, curb, check