jailbreak
noun
Jailbreak — the deliberate, planned escape from a place of confinement
Definition
An escape from jail; "the breakout was carefully planned"
In depth
A jailbreak is an escape from jail, the most explicit and unambiguous of the available terms for this act, naming both the event itself and, in more recent usage, the act of removing software restrictions imposed by a device manufacturer, a usage that borrows the same underlying image of breaking free from imposed confinement.
Origin
The word is a transparent compound, joining 'jail,' from Old French gaiole, ultimately from Late Latin caveola, a small cage, with 'break,' from Old English brecan. Its extension into technology vocabulary during the twenty-first century demonstrates how readily even very old, concrete words adapt to describe entirely new forms of confinement and liberation in the digital realm.
Usage examples
"The jailbreak was carefully planned, exploiting a brief window when security was known to be lightest."
"Decades later, the jailbreak remained a popular subject for films, each retelling adding its own embellishments to the true story."
"The phone's jailbreak allowed users to install software the manufacturer had never intended to permit."
How to use it
Jailbreak is the most direct and commonly recognized term for prison escape across American English, and its more recent technological sense, describing the bypassing of manufacturer software restrictions, has become equally common in contemporary digital culture.
Related concepts
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