incarcerate

From Medieval Latin incarcerātus, past participle of incarcerō (“to imprison”), from Latin in- (“in”) + carcer (“a prison”), meaning "put behind lines (bars)" – Latin root is of a lattice or grid. Related to cancel (“cross out with lines”) and chancel (“area behind a lattice”).

See also carcerate and cancer.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈkɑː.səˌɹeɪt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈkɑɹ.səˌɹeɪt/

• Audio (US)

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incarcerate (third-person singular simple present incarcerates, present participle incarcerating, simple past and past participle incarcerated)

1. (chiefly US) To lock away; to imprison, especially for breaking the law.
   • 2013 September 23, Masha Gessen, “Life in a Russian Prison”, in New York Times, retrieved 24 September 2013:

     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.

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

As a Latinate term, somewhat formal, compared to imprison. However, the term is, even in casual settings, used chiefly and frequently in the United States.

• imprison
• jail

• incarceration

• carceral
• carcerate
• decarcerate

• incarcerate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• “incarcerate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

incarcerate

1. inflection of incarcerare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative
   3. feminine plural past participle

• accentrerai