Careful Words

jail (n.)

jail (v.)

  Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784): Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. ii. Chap. iii. 1759.

There mark what ills the scholar's life assail,—

Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784): Vanity of Human Wishes. Line 159.