jailwear
English
Etymology
Noun
jailwear (uncountable)
- Clothes to be worn by inmates of a jail.
- 1999 September, Sally Chew, chapter 28, in A Fatal Lie: A True Story of Betrayal and Murder in the New South, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Paperbacks, →ISBN, page 185:
- For clothes, it’s jailwear or nothing at Riverside, unless you have the cash “on your books” to pick up a Hanes t-shirt or a pair of blue gym shorts from the canteen. The standard teal-green jumpsuit—never, ever to be worn unbuttoned—is only required for recreation and visitors.
- 2003, Susan McDougal with Pat Harris, “If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Sybil Brand”, in The Woman Who Wouldn’t Talk: Why I Refused to Testify Against the Clintons & What I Learned in Jail, New York, N.Y.: Carroll & Graf Publishers, →ISBN, page 263:
- Being on the high-profile ward meant getting special jailwear. Everyone on Murderers’ Row was forced to wear a bright red prison gown—the same color gown that was reserved for those charged with child molestation. Our red gowns alerted the rest of the prisoners to our “special” status, […]
- 2009, Stan Jones, chapter 12, in Village of the Ghost Bears: A Novel (A Nathan Active Mystery; 4), New York, N.Y.: Soho Press, →ISBN, pages 219–220:
- Alan Long stepped in with a pair of the orange jail coveralls under his arm. / “Here ya go, Pingo.” Long dropped the coveralls onto the table in front of Kivalina. / Kivalina put a hand on the jailwear and looked at the two officers. “I have to do it with you guys in here?” / “We’ll give you some privacy.” Active motioned for Long to follow him out of the room. / Through the mirror, they watched as Kivalina peeled off the coveralls with the stain at the crotch and tossed them into a corner.
- 2012, Patricia Cornwell, chapter 17, in The Bone Bed, London: Hachette Digital, →ISBN:
- His jailwear has been traded for a double-breasted black suit with wide pinstripes that looks Versace, and a white shirt with gold cuff links, and a rusty red-and-brown silk tie that brings to mind Hermès.
- 2012, Richard Castle [pseudonym; Tom Straw], chapter 19, in Frozen Heat (Nikki Heat; 4), →ISBN, pages 288–289:
- When Heat went into the box and sat across from Petar, she could see the fight all over him, too. The only difference was he’d been changed into jailwear. He bore more than his share of cuts, bruises, caked dirt, and dried blood. He even still wore the stripe of blue paint Nikki had tagged his face with. In his orange coveralls, he looked like he’d gotten ejected from a Florida Gators game.