Meanings
noundurance vile (uncountable)
- archaicidiomaticuncountableA long prison sentence.
In durance vile here must I wake and weep
1794, Robert Burns, Epistle from Esopus to Maria2 more examples
Two of the tribe were captured and put in irons, Binmook and Tommy, whose photographs, taken when in durance vile, I have by me still.
1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 74That is, Messrs Brown and Hinton would have been in durance vile before the issue could be litigated: the High Court does not give advisory decisions.
1994 February 19, The Canberra Times, page 15, column 3
Cite this entry
APA
durance vile. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/durance%20vile
MLA
“durance vile.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/durance%20vile. Accessed November 4, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “durance vile,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/durance%20vile.
Source: durance vile on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.