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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
imprisonment
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a term of imprisonment/detention
▪ She was sentenced to a long term of imprisonment.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
false
▪ The rest included allegations of wrongful arrest, false imprisonment and loss of property.
▪ Lombardy was stopped and arrested on suspicion of rape by force; rape with a foreign object and false imprisonment.
▪ Was recently awarded £30,000 damages against Thames Valley Police for wrongful arrest and false imprisonment.
▪ If anyone prevents you from doing so, you can sue for false imprisonment.
▪ But she was spared from that ordeal when Anthony Bourgois pleaded guilty to charges of false imprisonment and carrying a knife.
▪ The boy admitted false imprisonment and wounding.
▪ An action of damages may be brought for false imprisonment. 3.
▪ He denies false imprisonment, assault and blackmail.
long
▪ But this is a case where long imprisonment is needed not just as a punishment, but to protect society.
▪ Remarkably, he was able to evade long term imprisonment, and made his way to the West.
punishable
▪ In the armed services homosexuality is still punishable by imprisonment.
wrongful
▪ The law says 16 years' wrongful imprisonment for murder is worth £100,000 damages.
▪ Now he is being tried for kidnapping, wrongful imprisonment and bodily injury.
■ NOUN
life
▪ I mentioned the sentence of life imprisonment and the unlimited fines that are available for crimes involving knives.
▪ I think life imprisonment with hard labor is really important.
▪ The changes also included reducing the sentence for security offences from life imprisonment to 10 years.
▪ Capital prosecutions are hideously expensive; life imprisonment is cheaper and just as effective.
▪ He appeared once more and was then kept in suspense for months.The Pope eventually decided on life imprisonment.
▪ The military tribunal had condemned six other officers to life imprisonment.
▪ In December it was announced that 11 prisoners had been given the death sentence, commuted to life imprisonment.
▪ Phan Chu Trinh was sentenced to life imprisonment.
■ VERB
commute
▪ He insisted their sentence should be commuted to life imprisonment.
face
▪ They faced life imprisonment if convicted.
▪ If convicted, Kordic faces up to life imprisonment.
▪ They're warning that traders selling illegal copies face heavy fines and imprisonment.
▪ If convicted, he faces life imprisonment and a $ 12 million fine.
▪ Gen Krstic faces life imprisonment if the final verdict, due in the first half of next year, is guilty.
sentence
▪ Serfaty was sentenced to life imprisonment.
▪ She was sentenced to three months imprisonment and a dishonorable discharge.
▪ Spanswick was sentenced to nine months imprisonment suspended for two years with a supervision order attached.
▪ Seale was found guilty on sixteen counts of contempt and sentenced to four years imprisonment by the judge sitting without a jury.
▪ Calley, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment, was eventually paroled after having served only three years.
▪ McEvoy was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment.
▪ He was sentenced to seven years imprisonment by Mr Justice Jowitt.
▪ Instead, he complained, he had been brought to court, fined, whipped and sentenced to two months imprisonment.
serve
▪ Several young whites are already serving terms of imprisonment for refusing to serve.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
false imprisonment/arrest
▪ An action of damages may be brought for false imprisonment. 3.
▪ But she was spared from that ordeal when Anthony Bourgois pleaded guilty to charges of false imprisonment and carrying a knife.
▪ He denies false imprisonment, assault and blackmail.
▪ If anyone prevents you from doing so, you can sue for false imprisonment.
▪ Lombardy was stopped and arrested on suspicion of rape by force; rape with a foreign object and false imprisonment.
▪ The boy admitted false imprisonment and wounding.
▪ The rest included allegations of wrongful arrest, false imprisonment and loss of property.
▪ Was recently awarded £30,000 damages against Thames Valley Police for wrongful arrest and false imprisonment.
wrongful arrest/conviction/imprisonment/dismissal etc
▪ All claims by the employee, whether they be for unfair dismissal, wrongful dismissal or redundancy are claims against the vendor.
▪ Every wrongful imprisonment could lead to a civil lawsuit against the city.
▪ He issued a writ claiming damages for wrongful dismissal.
▪ Now he is being tried for kidnapping, wrongful imprisonment and bodily injury.
▪ One point to clear up immediately is the widespread confusion between wrongful dismissal and unfair dismissal.
▪ So the trial led to the wrongful conviction of Al-Megrahi and the final betrayal of the bereaved families.
▪ The city is facing many claims for wrongful arrest, totalling millions of dollars.
▪ What do you stand to gain in a wrongful dismissal case?
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Garrison faces life imprisonment for his role in the killings.
▪ Johnson was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for causing a riot.
▪ Many women believe that the punishment for rape should be life imprisonment.
▪ The offence is punishable by either a fine or imprisonment.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A 19 year old female student from Bath University was charged by Essex police with unlawful imprisonment and causing actual bodily harm.
▪ At his lowest ebb, Macari was threatened with imprisonment and his wife rang friends to secure bail money of £50,000.
▪ Debt burdens nearly always bring with them a sense of imprisonment.
▪ In 1922 Hannington received his first term of a month's imprisonment for uttering seditious words.
▪ On 3 April he was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment suspended for two years and was ordered to pay £1,500 compensation.
▪ Since his imprisonment, her son has been denied telephone contact with his family, she said.
▪ Spanswick was sentenced to nine months imprisonment suspended for two years with a supervision order attached.
▪ The court itself took the point that the committal was invalid and quashed a sentence of 18 months' imprisonment.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
imprisonment

late 14c., from Anglo-French emprisonement, Old French emprisonement (13c.), from emprisoner (see imprison).

Wiktionary
imprisonment

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

WordNet
imprisonment
  1. n. putting someone in prison or in jail as lawful punishment

  2. the state of being imprisoned; "he was held in captivity until he died"; "the imprisonment of captured soldiers"; "his ignominious incarceration in the local jail"; "he practiced the immurement of his enemies in the castle dungeon" [syn: captivity, incarceration, immurement]

  3. the act of confining someone in a prison (or as if in a prison) [syn: internment]

Wikipedia
Imprisonment

Imprisonment (from imprison Old French, French emprisonner, from en in + prison prison, from Latin prensio, arrest, from prehendere, prendere, to seize) is the restraint of a person's liberty, for any cause whatsoever, whether by authority of the government, or by a person acting without such authority. In the latter case it is " false imprisonment". Imprisonment does not necessarily imply a place of confinement, with bolts and bars, but may be exercised by any use or display of force, lawfully or unlawfully, wherever displayed, even in the open street. A people become prisoners, wherever they may be, by the mere word or touch of a duly authorized officer directed to that end. Usually, however, imprisonment is understood to imply an actual confinement in a jail or prison employed for the purpose according to the provisions of law.

Usage examples of "imprisonment".

He answered my question by the narrative of his imprisonment and flight, the whole story being a tissue of absurdities and lies.

I looked upon it as a favour to be left alone, he answered that I had grown wiser in the four months of my imprisonment.

Take care not to irritate me, Apollonius, or your punishment will exceed the usual imprisonment.

When the reader came to the allusions to secret arrests, protracted imprisonments, and the tedious formalities of the law and lawyers, he declared that it would be necessary to pull down the Bastile before it could be acted with safety, as Beaumarchais was ridiculing every thing which ought to be respected.

The Court then enunciated the principle that where a fine or imprisonment imposed on the contemnor is designed to coerce him to do what he has refused to do, the proceeding is one for civil contempt.

The President directs that the sentences of all deserters who have been condemned by court-martial to death, and that have not been otherwise acted upon by him, be mitigated to imprisonment during the war at the Dry Tortugas, Florida, where they will be sent under suitable guards by orders from army commanders.

He wanted to enjoy life egoistically, but he suffered imprisonment and finally went mad.

For myself, I can say that since I became a knight errant I have been valiant, well-mannered, liberal, polite, generous, courteous, bold, gentle, patient, long-suffering in labors, imprisonments, and enchantments, and although only a short while ago I saw myself locked in a cage like a madman, I think that with the valor of my arm, and heaven favoring me, and fortune not opposing me, in a few days I shall find myself the king of some kingdom where I can display the gratitude and liberality of my heart.

But should any officious functionary come down upon Fellside, this imbecility might be called madness, and the poor old creature whom you regard so compassionately, and whose case you think so pitiable here, would be carried off to a pauper lunatic asylum, which I can assure you would be a much worse imprisonment than Fellside Manor.

So also was Archdeacon, who, in addition, still showed his belief in physical force by his connection with Fenianism, for which he suffered imprisonment.

He returned to this country again, and was arrested in 1867 on a charge of Fenianism, and sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment.

We had been good friends during the year before my imprisonment, but I had heard nothing of him since.

The gags used to prevent their screaming had become more subtle and precise, the ties that secured them to the beams more elaborate and sure, their imprisonment longer, their deaths ever more horrifying.

But Father Lacombe, under the combined power of his Quietistic fanaticism, poor health, bitter persecutions, and relentless imprisonment, lost the balance of his mind altogether, and died.

Wanting to reward many nobles and knights who had been released from their imprisonment, he gave them over in matrimony to maidens of high station, all of them servants of the empress and the princess, and he also gave them large estates so they could live out their lives honorably.