Search the Dictionary

stody, whether in prison or not; a person held in involuntary restraint; a captive; as, a prisoner at the bar of a court. Bouvier. Prisoner of Hope thou art, -- look up and sing. Keble. Prisoner's base. See Base, n., 24.

One who imprisons.

o maltreat; to act injuriously to; to punish or to tax excessively; to hurt; as, to abuse prisoners, to abuse one's powers, one's patience.

ge; -- now followed by of before the charge, formerly by from; as, the jury acquitted the prisoner; we acquit a man of evil intentions.

to recognize as qualified for a franchise; as, to admit an attorney to practice law; the prisoner was admitted to bail.

a confession of guilt by a prisoner charged with treason or felony, together with an accusation of his accomplish and a giving evidence against them in order to obtain his own pardon. The term is no longer in use; it corresponded to what is now known as turning king's (or queen's) evidence in England, and state's evide…

To call or set as a prisoner at the bar of a court to answer to the matter charged in an indictment or complaint. Blackstone.

The act of arraigning, or the state of being arraigned; the act of calling and setting a prisoner before a court to answer to an indictment or complaint.

; to point out authoritatively or exactly; as, to assign a limit; to assign counsel for a prisoner; to assign a day for trial. All as the dwarf the way to her assigned. Spenser. It is not easy to assign a period more eventful. De Quincey.

The person or persons who procure the release of a prisoner from the custody of the officer, or from imprisonment, by becoming surely for his appearance in court. The bail must be real, substantial bondsmen. Blackstone. A. and B. were bail to the arrest in a suit at law. Kent.

A bond or obligation given by a prisoner and his surety, to insure the prisoner's appearance in court, at the return of the writ.

The place in court where prisoners are stationed for arraignment, trial, or sentence.

A rustic play; -- called also prisoner's base, prison base, or bars. "To run the country base." Shak.

bar or bolt of iron with sliding shackles, and a lock at the end, to confine the feet of prisoners or offenders, esp. on board of ships. Methought I lay Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Shak.

, ligature, chain, etc.; to fetter; to make fast; as, to bind grain in bundles; to bind a prisoner.

with allusion to the cell (the Black Hole) in a fort at Calcutta, into which 146 English prisoners were thrust by the nabob Suraja Dowla on the night of June 20, 17656, and in which 123 of the prisoners died before morning from lack of air. A discipline of unlimited autocracy, upheld by rods, and ferules, and the blac…

An iron to fasten the legs of a prisoner; a shackle; a fetter. [Obs.] Away with him to prison! lay bolts enough upon him. Shak.

A captive; a prisoner. [Obs.] Avarice doth tyrannize over her caitiff and slave. Holland.

To take prisoner; to capture; to subdue. [Obs.] Their woes whom fortune captivates. Shak.

A prisoner taken by force or stratagem, esp., by an enemy, in war; one kept in bondage or in the power of another. Then, when I am thy captive, talk of chains. Milton.