incarcerate

present singular third person incarcerates · participle present incarcerating · participle past incarcerated · past incarcerated · alternative encarcerate

1. UStransitiveTo lock away; to imprison, especially for breaking the law.

   In 2021, a judge found that Angola was providing inadequate medical care to its incarcerated population.

   2025 September 3, Hannah Rabinowitz, Devon M. Sayers, “Trump administration to open new ICE facility at notorious Louisiana prison”, in CNN

   1 more example

   Tolokonnikova has also been an effective public speaker even while incarcerated, but she has spoken out on politics and freedom in general rather than prisoners’ rights.

   2013 September 23, Masha Gessen, “Life in a Russian Prison”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 07 Dec 2022, retrieved 24 Sep 2013

   Synonyms: imprison, jail

2. transitiveTo confine; to shut up or enclose; to hem in.

alternative encarcerate

1. archaicnot comparableobsoleteIncarcerated: jailed, imprisoned, confined, shut in.

   Tane and incarcerat, kepit heir an there

   1583, Preface to The Legend of the Bishop St Androis Lyfe

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   Nor is that radiant force in humane kind / Extinguiſht quite, he that did them create / Can thoſe dull ruſty chains of ſleep unbind, / And rear the ſoul unto her ſristin ſtate: / He can them ſo inlarge and elevate / And ſpreaden out, that they can compaſſe all, / When they no longer be incarcerate / In this dark dungeon, this foul fleſhy wall, / Nor be no longer wedg’d in things corporeall: […]

   1642, H[enry] M[ore], “ΨΥΧΑΘΑΝΑΣΙΑ [Psychathanasia] Platonica: Or A Platonicall Poem of the Immortality of Souls, Especially Mans Soul”, in ΨΥΧΩΔΙΑ [Psychōdia] Platonica: Or A Platonicall Song of the Soul, […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Roger Daniel, printer to the Universitie, →OCLC, book 1, canto 2, stanza 20, page 13

   […] Mr. Vanſe, Keeper of the Tolbooth, did give in a Bill, repreſenting, That there being ſo great a number of Priſoners, upon account of Conventicles, and for Criminal Cauſes, and the ſaid Captain being incarcerate, not for a Crime, but for not finding Caution, he was in bona fide not to look upon him as a Perſon that would eſcape: […]

   1698, John Nisbet of Dirleton, Some Doubts & Questions, in the Law; Especially of Scotland. As Also, Some Decisions of the Lords of Council and Session: […], Edinburgh: […] George Mosman, […], page 146

   Being Incarcerat he put forth a Blaſphemous Paper, not only condemning all the work of Reformation, but alſo the Engliſh Bible in the form as it is now extant; […]

   1707, [James Renwick], An Informatory Vindication of a Poor, Wasted, Misrepresented, Remnant of the Suffering, Anti-Popish, Anti-Prelatick, Anti-Erastian, Anti-Sectarian, True Presbyterian Church of Christ in Scotland: […], page 14

   THat where I being incarcerate within the ſaid Tolbooth, by Warrand of the Lord Juſtice Clerk, for the Crime of Murder alledged committed by me, […] humbly ſhewing, That where, he being incarcerate within the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, by Warrant of the Lord Juſtice Clerk, for the Crime of Muther committed by him, […]

   1732, John Louthian, The Form of Process before the Court of Justiciary in Scotland; Containing the Constitution of the Sovereign Criminal Court, and the Way and Manner of Their Procedure: […], Edinburgh: […] Robert Fleming and Company, for William Hamilton, […], pages 71 and 73

   While incarcerate below, / Prayer with every breath shall flow; / Praise, expiring on my tongue, / Live anew in holier song, / Where my soul, its trial past, / Perfect joy shall reap at last!

   1833, Joseph P. Bartrum, The Psalms, Newly Paraphrased for the Service of the Sanctuary. […], Boston, Mass.: Russell, Odiorne, and Company, page 76