prisoner's base

noun

any of various children's games in which each of two teams has a home base where members of the opposing team are kept prisoner after being tagged or caught and from which they can be freed only in specified ways.
Also called prison base.

Origin of prisoner's base

1590–1600; compare late Middle English bace prisoner's base, perhaps from the phrase bringen bas to lay low, cause to surrender; later taken as an assimilated form of bars, plural of bar1, or as base1 (though the sense “goal or starting point” originated with this game)

Words nearby prisoner's base

prison fever, prison psychosis, prison rustic work, prisoner, prisoner of war, prisoner's base, prisoner's dilemma, priss, prissie, prissy, pristine

British Dictionary definitions for prisoner's base

prisoner's base

noun

a children's game involving two teams, members of which chase and capture each other to increase the number of children in their own base