gaoler

«gaoler» in Mova's school dictionary: to guard prisoners in a prison; a jailer or prison officer — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a gaoler, gaolers); also spelt jailer, jailor

meaning for a pupil

(UK, old spelling) A person whose job is to guard prisoners in a prison; a jailer or prison officer. tree →

sense in the lessons

Gaoler is the old British spelling of jailer, found in old books. In The Wind in the Willows, Toad is locked in a dungeon guarded by an old gaoler; the gaoler's kind daughter feels sorry for Toad and helps him escape dressed as her aunt, the washerwoman. Today we say prison officer.

examples

• The old gaoler jangled his keys outside Toad's cell. tree →
• The gaoler's daughter brought Toad hot buttered toast and tea. tree →
• The gaoler locked the heavy door and walked away. tree →
• Long ago the gaoler lived in a small house beside the gaol. tree →
• The gaoler counted the prisoners every evening. tree →
• In the story, the gaoler never noticed that Toad had gone. tree →
• The gaoler of the castle was a grumpy man with a lantern. tree →
• Luckily her gaoler was away, always trying to catch the stud of mares, so for the moment she was free and alone. tree →

note

Sounds exactly like «jailer». The spelling gaol/gaoler is old British; in the USA and most modern writing it is jail/jailer. Today the job title is prison officer (UK) or correctional officer (US).

In the corpora

• The old gaoler's rusty key creaks, the door clangs — and Toad is a helpless prisoner.
• The gaoler's kind daughter, who loves animals, asks to look after him.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «gaoler» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.