parole
1 Americannoun
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Penology.
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the conditional release of a person from prison prior to the end of the maximum sentence imposed.
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such release or its duration.
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an official document authorizing such a release.
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Military.
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the promise, usually written, of a prisoner of war, that if released they either will return to custody at a specified time or will not again take up arms against their captors.
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(formerly) any password given by authorized personnel in passing by a guard.
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word of honor given or pledged.
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(in U.S. immigration laws) the temporary admission of non-U.S. citizens into the United States for emergency reasons or on grounds considered in the public interest, as authorized by and at the discretion of the attorney general.
verb (used with object)
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to place or release on parole.
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to admit (a non-U.S. citizen) into the United States for emergency reasons or on grounds considered in the public interest.
An increased number of Hungarian refugees were paroled into the United States.
adjective
noun
noun
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the freeing of a prisoner before his sentence has expired, on the condition that he is of good behaviour
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the duration of such conditional release
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a promise given by a prisoner, as to be of good behaviour if granted liberty or partial liberty
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a variant spelling of parol
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military a password
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linguistics language as manifested in the individual speech acts of particular speakers Compare langue performance competence
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conditionally released from detention
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informal (of a person) under scrutiny, esp for a recurrence of an earlier shortcoming
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verb
Other Word Forms
- parolable adjective
- parolee noun
- unparolable adjective
- unparoled adjective
Etymology
Origin of parole
First recorded in 1610–20; from Middle French, short for parole d'honneur “word of honor”. See parol
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A 2024 examination, for example, discovered that a Nebraska parole board staffer drove a state car 243 miles on her day off to attend a retirement party.
Morgan Gire said “changes in state law and recent parole board failures” led to his improper release.
From Los Angeles Times
He was ordered to serve a minimum of 40 years in prison before being considered for release and will not be eligible for parole until 2042.
From BBC
An application for him to be released on parole in 2014 was also turned down.
From BBC
“Now that we have new laws like the elderly parole law,” she said, “we need to expand the SVP sentencing criteria.”
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
