GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

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1.       
   Jail , n. [OE. jaile, gail, gayhol, OF. gaole, gaiole, jaiole, F. geôle, LL. gabiola, dim. of gabia cage, for L. cavea cavity, cage. See Cage.] A kind of prison; a building for the confinement of persons held in lawful custody, especially for minor offenses or with reference to some future judicial proceeding. [Written also gaol.]
   1913 Webster
   This jail I count the house of liberty.
   Milton.
   
   1913 Webster
   Jail delivery, the release of prisoners from jail, either legally or by violence. -- Jail delivery commission. See under Gaol. -- Jail fever (Med.), typhus fever, or a disease resembling it, generated in jails and other places crowded with people; -- called also hospital fever, and ship fever. -- Jail liberties, or Jail limits, a space or district around a jail within which an imprisoned debtor was, on certain conditions, allowed to go at large. Abbott. -- Jail lock, a peculiar form of padlock; -- called also Scandinavian lock.
   1913 Webster