"jailhouse lawyer" meaning in English

See jailhouse lawyer in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: jailhouse lawyers [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} jailhouse lawyer (plural jailhouse lawyers)
  1. (informal) A person incarcerated in a prison, jail, etc., who has acquired significant knowledge of the justice system and who is able to represent himself in some legal proceedings and to provide legal advice to other prisoners. Wikipedia link: jailhouse lawyer Tags: informal
    Sense id: en-jailhouse_lawyer-en-noun-IJLC0zra Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "jailhouse lawyers",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "jailhouse lawyer (plural jailhouse lawyers)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1994 June 11, Alisa Solomon, “The Prison on Varick Street”, in New York Times (retrieved 19 Nov 2012):",
          "text": "As something of a jailhouse lawyer, he has gathered affidavits attesting to abusive treatment by guards at the center, informed detainees of their legal rights and helped them write letters of appeal.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2001 June 24, David S. Jackson, “Murder Most Foul”, in Time:",
          "text": "Once there, he became a jailhouse lawyer, filing complaints about everything from prison food to his attorneys.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013, Nicole Hendrix, James Inciardi, Experience Criminal Justice, page 325:",
          "text": "Thus, the justices held that unless the state could provide some reasonable alternative type of legal assistance, a jailhouse lawyer must be permitted to aid inmates in filing habeas corpus petitions.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person incarcerated in a prison, jail, etc., who has acquired significant knowledge of the justice system and who is able to represent himself in some legal proceedings and to provide legal advice to other prisoners."
      ],
      "id": "en-jailhouse_lawyer-en-noun-IJLC0zra",
      "links": [
        [
          "incarcerate",
          "incarcerate"
        ],
        [
          "prison",
          "prison"
        ],
        [
          "jail",
          "jail"
        ],
        [
          "justice",
          "justice"
        ],
        [
          "system",
          "system"
        ],
        [
          "proceeding",
          "proceeding"
        ],
        [
          "advice",
          "advice"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) A person incarcerated in a prison, jail, etc., who has acquired significant knowledge of the justice system and who is able to represent himself in some legal proceedings and to provide legal advice to other prisoners."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "jailhouse lawyer"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "jailhouse lawyer"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "jailhouse lawyers",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "jailhouse lawyer (plural jailhouse lawyers)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English informal terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1994 June 11, Alisa Solomon, “The Prison on Varick Street”, in New York Times (retrieved 19 Nov 2012):",
          "text": "As something of a jailhouse lawyer, he has gathered affidavits attesting to abusive treatment by guards at the center, informed detainees of their legal rights and helped them write letters of appeal.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2001 June 24, David S. Jackson, “Murder Most Foul”, in Time:",
          "text": "Once there, he became a jailhouse lawyer, filing complaints about everything from prison food to his attorneys.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2013, Nicole Hendrix, James Inciardi, Experience Criminal Justice, page 325:",
          "text": "Thus, the justices held that unless the state could provide some reasonable alternative type of legal assistance, a jailhouse lawyer must be permitted to aid inmates in filing habeas corpus petitions.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person incarcerated in a prison, jail, etc., who has acquired significant knowledge of the justice system and who is able to represent himself in some legal proceedings and to provide legal advice to other prisoners."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "incarcerate",
          "incarcerate"
        ],
        [
          "prison",
          "prison"
        ],
        [
          "jail",
          "jail"
        ],
        [
          "justice",
          "justice"
        ],
        [
          "system",
          "system"
        ],
        [
          "proceeding",
          "proceeding"
        ],
        [
          "advice",
          "advice"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) A person incarcerated in a prison, jail, etc., who has acquired significant knowledge of the justice system and who is able to represent himself in some legal proceedings and to provide legal advice to other prisoners."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "jailhouse lawyer"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "jailhouse lawyer"
}

Download raw JSONL data for jailhouse lawyer meaning in English (2.1kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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