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# imprisoned

«imprisoned» in Mova's school dictionary: **Put in prison as a punishment, or kept in prison** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

past tense and past participle of imprison (imprison, imprisons, imprisoned, imprisoning); adjective (imprisoned)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Put in prison as a punishment, or kept in prison. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imprisoned/#m1)

2) Kept somewhere and not able to get out, like a trapped animal or a princess in a tower. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imprisoned/#m2)

3) (figurative) Unable to escape a feeling or situation: «imprisoned by fear». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imprisoned/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In history and stories people are imprisoned for crimes, or unfairly for their beliefs; in the Bible Joseph and Paul were imprisoned. In ethics lessons pupils discuss fair punishment and people imprisoned for speaking up. Phrases: «be imprisoned for», «wrongly imprisoned», «imprisoned in a tower».

### examples

- The thief was imprisoned for two years. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imprisoned/#x1)
- Joseph was imprisoned in Egypt, though he had done nothing wrong. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imprisoned/#x2)
- The princess was imprisoned in a high tower. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imprisoned/#x3)
- Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for a very long time before becoming president. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imprisoned/#x4)
- The bird felt imprisoned in its small cage. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imprisoned/#x5)
- Paul wrote letters while he was imprisoned. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imprisoned/#x6)
- ‘Ah! cruel Queen! what have I ever done to be imprisoned like this? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imprisoned/#x7)

### note

Regular verb: imprison, imprisoned. Noun: imprisonment. Usually passive: «He was imprisoned.» Similar: jailed, locked up (informal).

### In the corpora

- [Paul travelled across the Roman world starting churches, and was shipwrecked, beaten and imprisoned.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/20-paul-his-letters-and-the-way-of-love/12/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «imprisoned» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imprisoned/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.