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
Along with hundreds of others, he had been taken prisoner and pressed into service for the militia.
—
Jon Lee Anderson, New Yorker, 24 Nov. 2025
Another extensive construction project was approved 10 years later, which would include a two-story building to house women prisoners.
—Arkansas Online, 22 Nov. 2025
Many of our Bay Area parks engage with history, culture and the people who’ve lived here, including Native Americans, Spanish missionaries, American settlers, Civil War soldiers, immigrants, Rosie the Riveters and famous writers, musicians, civil rights leaders and federal prisoners.
—Martha Ross, Mercury News, 22 Nov. 2025
The central conflict is illuminated only marginally better when Elphaba’s sister Nessa (Marissa Bode), now a corrupt governor, passes a law forbidding her Munchkin prisoner, Boq (Ethan Slater), from traveling later in the movie.
—Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 22 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for prisoner
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Jon Lee Anderson, New Yorker, 24 Nov. 2025
Another extensive construction project was approved 10 years later, which would include a two-story building to house women prisoners.
—Arkansas Online, 22 Nov. 2025
Many of our Bay Area parks engage with history, culture and the people who’ve lived here, including Native Americans, Spanish missionaries, American settlers, Civil War soldiers, immigrants, Rosie the Riveters and famous writers, musicians, civil rights leaders and federal prisoners.
—Martha Ross, Mercury News, 22 Nov. 2025
The central conflict is illuminated only marginally better when Elphaba’s sister Nessa (Marissa Bode), now a corrupt governor, passes a law forbidding her Munchkin prisoner, Boq (Ethan Slater), from traveling later in the movie.
—Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 22 Nov. 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 25 Nov. 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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