Definition

1. Verb:
   • To imprison, to incarcerate, to put in prison: The primary meaning of "bắt giam" is the official act of taking a person into custody and placing them in a jail or detention facility, typically by legal authority such as the police, following an arrest or due to suspicion of a crime.
   • To detain (in a formal, custodial sense): It implies holding someone in confinement, often while awaiting trial or investigation.

Usage Examples

• Verb:
  • Cảnh sát đã bắt giam nghi phạm. (The police imprisoned the suspect.)
  • Hắn có thể bị bắt giam vì tội gian lận. (He could be incarcerated for fraud.)
  • Tòa án ra lệnh bắt giam bị cáo. (The court ordered the defendant to be detained.)

Advanced Usage

• The term is formal and carries a strong legal/judicial connotation. It is used in news reports, legal documents, and official statements to describe the state-mandated deprivation of liberty.
• It often follows an initial arrest ("bắt") and specifies the subsequent action of confinement.

Variants and Related Words

• Bắt giữ (v): to arrest, to apprehend. This focuses more on the initial act of taking into custody, while "bắt giam" emphasizes the subsequent imprisonment.
  • Cảnh sát bắt giữ tên cướp. (The police arrested the robber.)
• Giam giữ (v): to detain, to hold in custody. This can be a more general term for confinement.
• Tạm giam (v): to remand in custody, to detain temporarily.
  • Bị cáo bị tạm giam để điều tra. (The defendant was remanded in custody for investigation.)

Synonyms

• Imprison: to put or keep someone in prison.
• Incarcerate: to confine in a prison or similar institution.
• Detain (formally): to keep someone in official custody.
• Jail: to put someone in jail.

Related Idioms

• While "bắt giam" itself is a formal term and not typically part of idioms, it is central to legal phrases like "lệnh bắt giam" (arrest warrant/imprisonment order) or "thời hạn bắt giam" (detention period).

1. Put in prison, imprison, incarcerate, detain