gaol

Meanings

noungaol (countable and uncountable, plural gaols)

UKcountableuncountableDated spelling of jail.
There was a simple reason for Sirius' complete absence from Harry's life until then – Sirius had been in Azkaban, the terrifying wizard gaol guarded by creatures called Dementors, […]
2000 July 8, J. K. Rowling [pseudonym; Joanne Rowling], “The Scar”, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter; 4), London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 26
1 more example
There's every Staffordshire crime-piece ever made in this cabinet, and that's unique. The Van Hoyer Museum in New York hasn't that very rare second version of Maria Marten's Red Barn over there, nor the little Frederick George Manning – he was the criminal Dickens saw hanged on the roof of the gaol in Horsemonger Lane, by the way —
1963, Margery Allingham, “Miss Thyrza’s Chair”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 42

verbgaol (third-person singular simple present gaols, present participle gaoling, simple past and past participle gaoled)

present singular third person gaols · participle present gaoling · participle past gaoled · past gaoled

UKDated spelling of jail.

Synonyms & antonyms

nouna correctional institution used to detain persons who are in the lawful custody of the government (either accused persons awaiting trial or convicted persons serving a sentence)

Similar

jail jailhouse clink slammer poky pokey

Broader

correctional institution

verblock up or confine, in or as in a jail

Broader

confine detain

Also see

bastille bin calaboose clink compound immure imprison incarcerate jail jailhouse jug lag pokey poky put away remand slammer

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

Latincavea“cavity, coop, cage”
Late Latincaveola
Medieval Latingabiola
Old Frenchgaiole
Middle Englishgayole
Englishgaol

From Middle English gayole, gaiol, gaylle, gaille, gayle, gaile, via Old French gaiole, gayolle, gaole, from Medieval Latin gabiola, for Late Latin caveola, a diminutive of Latin cavea (“cavity, coop, cage”). See also cage.