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Jail vs Hell - What's the difference?

jail | hell |

As a noun 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.

As a verb jail

is to imprison.

As a proper noun hell is

.

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

    hell

    English

    (wikipedia hell)

    Alternative forms

    * (Christianity) Hell * *

    Proper noun

    (en proper noun)
  • In various religions, the place where some or all spirits are believed to go after death
  • Do Muslims believe that all non-Muslims go to hell ?
  • (Abrahamic religions, uncountable) The place where devils live and where sinners are tortured after death
  • May you rot in hell !
  • * 1667 , John Milton, Paradise Lost
  • Better to reign in Hell' than serve in ' Heaven .
  • * 1916 , James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
  • Hell is a strait and dark and foul-smelling prison, an abode of demons and lost souls, filled with fire and smoke.

    Synonyms

    * (euphemisms for Christian place for damned souls after death) Hades, heck, infernal region, inferno, netherworld, underworld * (Mormonism) Spirit]] [[prison, Prison

    Antonyms

    * (sense) heaven

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (countable, hyperbole) A place or situation of great suffering in life.
  • My new boss is making my job a hell .
    I went through hell to get home today.
  • * 1879 , General William T. Sherman, commencement address at the Michigan Military Academy
  • There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell .
  • *
  • (countable) A place for gambling.
  • * W. Black
  • a convenient little gambling hell for those who had grown reckless
  • * 1907 , (Joseph Conrad), The Secret Agent
  • An extremely hot place.
  • You don't have a snowball's chance in hell .
  • (Used as an intensifier in phrases grammatically requiring a noun)
  • I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more.
    What the hell is wrong with you?
    He says he's going home early? Like hell he is.
  • (obsolete) A place into which a tailor throws his shreds, or a printer his broken type.
  • (Hudibras)
  • In certain games of chase, a place to which those who are caught are carried for detention.
  • Derived terms

    * as hell * forty minutes of hell * hell and half of Georgia * hella * hellagood * hell-fire * hell for leather * hell hath no fury like a woman scorned * hellish * hell on earth * hell on wheels * hell's delight * hellspawn * hell to pay * hell week * like hell * living hell * no screaming hell * the hell * the hell out of * the hell with it * to hell with * what the hell

    Interjection

    (en interjection)
  • Oh, hell ! I got another parking ticket.
  • Hell , yeah!

    See also

    * damn * heck English intensifiers English swear words ----