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Jail vs Cell - What's the difference?

jail | cell |

As nouns the difference between jail and cell

is that jail is a place for the confinement of persons held in lawful custody or detention, especially for minor offenses or with reference to some future judicial proceeding while cell is a single-room dwelling for a hermit.

As verbs the difference between jail and cell

is that jail is to imprison while cell is to place or enclose in a cell.

jail

English

Alternative forms

* gaol

Noun

  • A place for the confinement of persons held in lawful custody or detention, especially for minor offenses or with reference to some future judicial proceeding.
  • * {{quote-book
  • , year = 1966 , title = , author= , page = 218 , edition = first , chapter = Part II, section 11 , passage = Taking a shower at the high school, Tommy (the Kitten) Cavanaugh kids Ugly Palmers. "Ugly, if you think the world is coming to an end," he says, "what are you wasting your time here at this jail for? You gonna need American history up there?" }}
  • (uncountable) Confinement in a jail.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=December 14 , author=Steven Morris , title=Devon woman jailed for 168 days for killing kitten in microwave , work=Guardian citation , page= , passage=He said Robins had not been in trouble with the law before and had no previous convictions. Jail would have an adverse effect on her and her three children as she was the main carer.}}
  • (horse racing) The condition created by the requirement that a horse claimed in a claiming race not be run at another track for some period of time (usually 30 days).
  • In dodgeball and related games, the area where players who have been struck by the ball are confined.
  • Usage notes

    * (prison) Like many nouns denoting places where people spend time, (term) requires no article after certain prepositions: hence , and so on. The forms (term), (term), and so on do exist, but tend to imply mere presence in the jail, rather than detention there. * Until Monopoly popularised the spelling jail' in the UK and Australia, ' gaol was the standard spelling in these countries.

    Synonyms

    * slammer

    Coordinate terms

    * (place of confinement) big house, hoosegow, prison

    Derived terms

    * jailbait * jailbird * jailbreak * jailer * jail fever * jailhouse * jail sentence

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To imprison.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Can China clean up fast enough? , passage=It has jailed environmental activists and is planning to limit the power of judicial oversight by handing a state-approved body a monopoly over bringing environmental lawsuits.}}

    Synonyms

    * imprison

    cell

    English

    Etymology 1

    (etyl) , later reinforced by (etyl) cel, (sele), (etyl) cele.

    Noun

    (en noun) (wikipedia cell)
  • A single-room dwelling for a hermit.
  • * 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , VI.6:
  • So, taking them apart into his cell , / He to that point fit speaches gan to frame […].
  • A small room in a monastery or nunnery accommodating one person.
  • Gregor Mendel must have spent a good amount of time outside of his cell .
  • Each of the small hexagonal compartments in a honeycomb.
  • * 1858 , (Asa Gray), Introduction to Structural and Systematic Botany , fifth edition, p. 282:
  • Each of the two cells or lobes of the anther is marked with a lateral line or furrow, running from top to bottom.
  • (obsolete) Specifically, any of the supposed compartments of the brain, formerly thought to be the source of specific mental capacities, knowledge, or memories.
  • * 1890 , (Oscar Wilde), The Picture of Dorian Gray , ch.XVI:
  • From cell' to ' cell of his brain crept the one thought; and the wild desire to live, most terrible of all man's appetites, quickened into force each trembling nerve and fibre.
  • A section or compartment of a larger structure.
  • *, II.12:
  • Thou seest but the order and policie of this little Cell .
  • * 1810 , (Walter Scott), Lady of the Lake , II:
  • Not long shall honour'd Douglas dwell, / Like hunted stag, in mountain-cell .
  • A room in a prison for one or more inmates.
  • The combatants spent the night in separate cells .
  • A device which stores electrical]] power; used either singly or together in [[battery, batteries; the basic unit of a battery.
  • This MP3 player runs on 2 AAA cells .
  • (biology) The basic unit of a living organism, consisting of a quantity of protoplasm surrounded by a cell membrane, which is able to synthesize proteins and replicate itself.
  • * 1999 , Paul Brown & Dave King, The Guardian , 15 Feb 1999:
  • An American company has applied to experiment in Britain on Parkinson's disease sufferers by injecting their brains with cells from pigs.
  • * 2011 , Terence Allen & Graham Cowling, The Cell: A Very Short Introduction , Oxford 2011, p. 3:
  • In multicellular organisms, groups of cells form tissues and tissues come together to form organs.
  • (meteorology) A small thunderstorm, caused by convection, that forms ahead of a storm front.
  • There is a powerful storm cell headed our way.
  • (computing) The minimal unit of a cellular automaton that can change state and has an associated behavior.
  • The upper right cell always starts with the color green.
  • (card games) In FreeCell-type games, a space where one card can be placed.
  • A small group of people forming part of a larger organization, often an outlawed one.
  • Those three fellows are the local cell of that organization.
  • (communication) A short, fixed-length packet as in .
  • Virtual Channel number 5 received 170 cells .
  • (communication) A region of radio reception that is a part of a larger radio network.
  • I get good reception in my home because it is near a cell tower.
  • (geometry) A three-dimensional facet of a polytope.
  • (statistics) The unit in a statistical array (a spreadsheet, for example) where a row and a column intersect.
  • (architecture) The space between the ribs of a vaulted roof.
  • (architecture) A cella.
  • (entomology) An area of an insect wing bounded by veins
  • Usage notes
    In the sense of an electrical device, "cell" is the technically correct name for a single unit of battery-type power storage, whereas a battery is a device comprising multiple of them, though it is often used for simple cells.
    Synonyms
    * See also
    Derived terms
    (terms derived from "cell") * battery cell * blood cell * brain cell * cancer cell * cellbound * cell division * cell house * cell line * cell membrane * cell theory * cell type * cellblock * cellmate * dry cell * fat cell * fuel cell * germ cell * helper T cell * host cell * photoconductive cell * photoelectric cell * photoemissive cell * photovoltaic cell * prison cell * nerve cell * red cell * red blood cell * sickle cell * skin cell * solar cell * stem cell * T cell

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To place or enclose in a cell.
  • * Warner
  • Celled under ground.
    (Webster 1913)

    Etymology 2

    From (cell phone), from (cellular phone), from (cellular) + (telephone)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (US, informal) A cellular phone.
  • Usage notes
    * Widely used attributively.