1. The act of confining a person, esp. in a prison (the imprisonment of Jackson was entirely justified).
2. The state of being confined; a period of confinement (Jackson’s imprisonment lasted 14 years). See FALSE IMPRISONMENT.
“Imprisonment, by whatever name it is called, is a harsh thing, and the discipline that must be exercised over human beings in close confinement can never be wholly agreeable to those subject to it. When an attempt is made to hide the harsh realities of criminal justice behind euphemistic descriptions, a corrupting irony may be introduced into ordinary speech that is fully as frightening as Orwell’s ‘Newspeak.’ ” Lon L. Fuller, Anatomy of the Law 57 (1968).
