jailbirds

noun

plural of jailbird
as in prisoners
a person convicted as a criminal and serving a prison sentence had spent most of his sorry life as a jailbird in hoosegows across the South

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of jailbirds But these jailbirds aren’t using their own fingers to fire off missives or create clones. — Andrew Zucker, HollywoodReporter, 13 Feb. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for jailbirds
  1. prisoners
  2. convicts
  3. inmates
Noun
  • Hospital staff were working to save Pike's life and as of late Thursday were trying to clear the two doses of the drug that the state uses to execute prisoners, her lawyers wrote in a Friday filing in Davidson County Chancery Court.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 3 Oct. 2026
  • Hospital staff, her lawyers said, were working to save Pike’s life and as of late Thursday were trying to clear the two doses of the drug that the state uses to execute prisoners.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 3 Oct. 2026
Definition of prisoners
Noun
  • Aiming to make the race to succeed Tillis a referendum on crime, Republicans have run ads claiming that Democratic nominee Roy Cooper went easy on convicts during his two terms in the governor’s mansion.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 6 Oct. 2026
  • Nor could Grossman write about collaborators or the punishment battalions composed of convicts that were used as cannon fodder (one of many parallels between the conduct of the Soviet army and the present-day Russian military in Ukraine).
    — Nick Holdstock, The Dial, 8 Sep. 2026
Definition of convicts
Noun
  • Ábrego Garcia was then sent to a mega-prison in El Salvador known as CECOT, which activists say is rife with abuses and where inmates are packed into cells and never allowed outside.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 7 Oct. 2026
  • The military prison study assessed whether the gloves could be used effectively to forcibly remove combative prisoners from their cells, to respond to disturbances in common areas and to transport uncooperative inmates.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 6 Oct. 2026
Definition of inmates

Browse Nearby Words

jailbird
jailbirds
jailbreak
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Jailbirds.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/jailbirds. Accessed 10 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of Luddite

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

The Exceptions of '-s' and '-es' Plurals

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

7 Words for Bad Endings and Rough Situations

The Words of the Week - Oct. 9

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)
See More

Popular

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
a cup of tea and a golf ball on tee side by side
Quiz: Sounds Like... Choose the word that sounds like it fits the clue...
See All