prisoner

Noun

prisoner (plural prisoners)

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.
   • The evidence disclosed that the three prisoners were in a public-house together with the prosecutor, Abraham Rhodes, and that in concert with the other two prisoners, the prisoner John Dewhirst placed a pencase on the table in the room where they were assembled, and left the room to get...1861, Edward William Cox, Reports of Cases in Criminal Law

   Synonyms:

   jailbird

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.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
   • 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.1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
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.