1
: a person deprived of liberty and kept under involuntary restraint, confinement, or custody
especially
: one on trial or in prison
2
: someone restrained as if in prison
a prisoner of her own conscience
see also take-no-prisoners, take no prisoners
Examples of prisoner in a Sentence
He was captured by rebel forces and kept as their prisoner for several months before they set him free.
The families were held prisoner for four days.
Recent Examples on the Web
Trump’s order came after President Biden converted the death sentences of 37 of 40 prisoners on death row to sentences of life without parole and after Biden in 2021 issued a pause on executions while a review of related DOJ policies was carried out.
—
Molly Crane-Newman, New York Daily News, 1 Apr. 2025
Negotiations over those parts of the agreement were supposed to have begun in February after some hostages were freed in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody.
—Landon Mion, FOXNews.com, 31 Mar. 2025
Elvis rarely wore denim, but 1957's Jailhouse Rock called for the prisoners to be in denim workwear and money talks — so Elvis put up little resistance to his no-denim rule.
—Tim Moffatt, EW.com, 29 Mar. 2025
Bones is a supernatural thriller set in Siberia along the Kolyma Highway, a real highway that was built in Stalinist Soviet Union using the labor of prisoners from the region’s gulags.
—Borys Kit, HollywoodReporter, 28 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for prisoner
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Molly Crane-Newman, New York Daily News, 1 Apr. 2025
Negotiations over those parts of the agreement were supposed to have begun in February after some hostages were freed in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody.
—Landon Mion, FOXNews.com, 31 Mar. 2025
Elvis rarely wore denim, but 1957's Jailhouse Rock called for the prisoners to be in denim workwear and money talks — so Elvis put up little resistance to his no-denim rule.
—Tim Moffatt, EW.com, 29 Mar. 2025
Bones is a supernatural thriller set in Siberia along the Kolyma Highway, a real highway that was built in Stalinist Soviet Union using the labor of prisoners from the region’s gulags.
—Borys Kit, HollywoodReporter, 28 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for prisoner
Cite this Entry
“Prisoner.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prisoner. Accessed 16 Apr. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
prisoner
noun
pris·on·er
ˈpriz-nər 
-ᵊn-ər
: a person who has been captured or locked up
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