incarcerate

verb in·car·cer·ate \ in-ˈkär-sə-ˌrāt \

|Updated on: 9 Aug 2018

Examples: incarcerate in a Sentence

Editor's Note: Did You Know?

Definition of incarcerate

incarcerated; incarcerating

transitive verb

1 : to put in prison

2 : to subject to confinement

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incarceration

play \(ˌ)in-ˌkär-sə-ˈrā-shən\ noun

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Examples of incarcerate in a Sentence

the state incarcerated over 1900 people last year

Recent Examples of incarcerate from the Web

United Way of America chief William Aramony and extremist politician Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. both faced fraud charges while incarcerated in the jail.

— rachel weiner, chicagotribune.com, "Paul Manafort moves to Alexandria jail, a past home to spies and terrorists," 12 July 2018
United Way of America chief William Aramony and extremist politician Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. both faced fraud charges while incarcerated in the jail.

— rachel weiner, Washington Post, "Paul Manafort moves to Alexandria jail, a past home to spies and terrorists," 12 July 2018
My father served his country, while his wife and son, parents and relatives were all incarcerated.

— heidi chang, latimes.com, "USS Arizona Memorial, watery grave of Pearl Harbor sailors, remains closed as officials mull repairs," 3 July 2018
Nativity statues of the baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph, which usually mark Christmas, were incarcerated Tuesday on the lawn of Christ Church Cathedral behind a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire.

— faith e. pinho, Indianapolis Star, "Christ Church Cathedral Indianapolis 'detains' Jesus, Mary, Joseph to protest Trump's immigration policy," 3 July 2018
Other children have been placed into foster care while their parents are incarcerated hundreds of miles away.

— oscar j. benavidez, STAT, "Separating families at the border isn’t just bad policy — it’s horrible for children’s health," 19 June 2018
While the parents are incarcerated, children — who are not charged with a crime — are separated and kept in juvenile facilities with no clear process for reunification.

— katie reilly, Time, "Nearly 2,000 Children Have Been Separated From Their Families During Trump Border Crackdown," 16 June 2018
Another key finding showed Missouri residents receiving food assistance benefits while either incarcerated or after passing away.

— conner mitchell, kansascity, "Missouri food stamps often used out of state or spent by non-cardholders, audit finds," 5 June 2018
The state Department of Corrections and Department of Workforce Development have been working on job training programs that take place while inmates are still incarcerated.

— john schmid, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Frequent job turnover is becoming the new normal in some sectors in tight labor market," 4 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'incarcerate.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

A criminal sentenced to incarceration may wish his or her debt to society could be canceled, but such a wistful felon might be surprised to learn that incarcerate and cancel are related. Incarcerate comes from incarcerare, a Latin verb meaning "to imprison." That Latin root comes from carcer, Latin for prison. Etymologists think that cancel probably got its start when the spelling of carcer was modified to cancer, which means "lattice" in Latin-an early meaning of cancel in English was "to mark (a passage) for deletion with lines crossed like a lattice." Aside from its literal meaning, incarcerate can also have a figurative application meaning "to subject to confinement," as in "people who are incarcerated in their obsessions."