Lockup: meaning, definitions and examples

Informal term for a place or condition of temporary imprisonment, typically for short periods.

• They put him in the local lockup for the night after the bar fight.
• She was held in the lockup until her court appearance.

Formal term for being imprisoned, often for longer periods or as a result of a serious offense.

• The judge sentenced him to ten years of incarceration.
• Incarceration rates have been rising across the country.

Used for temporary or short-term imprisonment; can also be applied in contexts like school or police holding.

• The student received detention for disrupting the class.
• He was placed in police detention pending further investigation.

General term indicating a state of being restricted or kept in a limited space, often used in various contexts beyond just imprisonment.

• The patient was kept in confinement for quarantine reasons.
• They endured months of confinement during the pandemic.

This duplicate term also generally covers the context of being a secure place for both people or items. The meaning remains consistent with the other 'lockup' description.

• After the fight, he ended up in lockup.
• The company uses a lockup to store its valuable documents.

This general term refers to any place where items are kept for future use. It doesn't necessarily imply high security and can be as simple as a closet or a rented unit.

• We need to find more storage for our winter clothes.
• He rented a storage unit for his old books.

This term is usually used to refer to a highly secure room or compartment, often in banks, used to store large sums of money, important documents, or valuables. It has connotations of very high security.

• The bank's vault is protected by multiple security systems.
• She safely placed the rare coin collection in the vault.

This word is typically used to describe a strong, box-like container, often reinforced, where valuable items like money, jewelry, or important documents are stored to keep them secure.

• She keeps her jewelry in a wall-mounted safe.
• The safe at the bank is almost impossible to break into.