jailer

noun

jail·​er ˈjā-lər 

variants or less commonly jailor

1

: a keeper of a jail

2

: one that restricts another's liberty as if by imprisonment

Examples of jailer in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This encourages the innocents locked in political prisons and undermines the authority of their jailers. —James Freeman, WSJ, 16 Nov. 2023

Now his former jailer was walking past him in a humdrum Addis Ababa neighborhood. —Ed Caesar, The New Yorker, 6 Nov. 2023

In one case, a dozen men stabbed another inmate for roughly 14 minutes before jailers arrived. —Keri Blakinger, Los Angeles Times, 19 Oct. 2023

The defendants are the jailer, another jailer, a nurse and Woods. —Arkansas Online, 10 Sep. 2023

In May, White entered a guilty plea to escape charges in exchange for the felony murder charge involving Vicky White, the Lauderdale County jailer who facilitated his 11-day 2022 escape, being dropped. —William Thornton | [e-mail], al, 18 July 2023

According to the news release, Sheriff Lafayette Woods Jr. emphasizes deputy jailers in Jefferson County are required to complete 72 hours of training, exceeding the state mandate of 56 hours of jail training. —Staff Report, Arkansas Online, 17 Sep. 2023

And when this happened to Harris, as Harris alleges, the jailer was selected for termination, but Jefferson County Sheriff Lafayette Woods Jr. swooped in to keep the jailer on staff. —Arkansas Online, 10 Sep. 2023

In the notice of claim — a filing that is typically the precursor to a lawsuit — attorney Thomas Beck also accused jailers at the Norwalk sheriff’s station of harassing his client by allegedly forcing the then-23-year-old teacher to expose his genitals in order to prove his gender. —Keri Blakinger, Los Angeles Times, 11 Aug. 2023

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Word History

First Known Use

13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

jailer

noun

jail·​er

variants or jailor

ˈjā-lər 

: a keeper of a jail

Legal Definition

jailer

noun

jail·​er

: a keeper of a jail