INCARCERATION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does incarceration mean? 

• INCARCERATION (noun)
  The noun INCARCERATION has 1 sense:

1. the state of being imprisoned

  Familiarity information: INCARCERATION used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INCARCERATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The state of being imprisoned

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

captivity; immurement; imprisonment; incarceration

Context example:

he practiced the immurement of his enemies in the castle dungeon

Hypernyms ("incarceration" is a kind of...):

confinement (the state of being confined)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "incarceration"):

durance (imprisonment (especially for a long time))

life imprisonment (a sentence of imprisonment until death)

internment (confinement during wartime)

Derivation:

incarcerate (lock up or confine, in or as in a jail)

 Context examples 

“Without more directly referring to any latent ability that may possibly exist on my part, of wielding the thunderbolt, or directing the devouring and avenging flame in any quarter, I may be permitted to observe, in passing, that my brightest visions are for ever dispelled—that my peace is shattered and my power of enjoyment destroyed—that my heart is no longer in the right place—and that I no more walk erect before my fellow man. The canker is in the flower. The cup is bitter to the brim. The worm is at his work, and will soon dispose of his victim. The sooner the better. But I will not digress. “Placed in a mental position of peculiar painfulness, beyond the assuaging reach even of Mrs. Micawber's influence, though exercised in the tripartite character of woman, wife, and mother, it is my intention to fly from myself for a short period, and devote a respite of eight-and-forty hours to revisiting some metropolitan scenes of past enjoyment. Among other havens of domestic tranquillity and peace of mind, my feet will naturally tend towards the King's Bench Prison. In stating that I shall be (D. V.) on the outside of the south wall of that place of incarceration on civil process, the day after tomorrow, at seven in the evening, precisely, my object in this epistolary communication is accomplished.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)