Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
to put in little-ease

to put in little-ease

9.9
Lock someone in a very small cramped cell as punishment
  • phrasal verb
  • NSFW
: encerrar en la pequeña incomodidad
  • The jailer put the prisoner in little-ease for disobeying orders.

Examples

  • Prisoners were often put in little-ease as a warning to others.

  • The rebel was put in little-ease for defying the king's orders.

  • He threatened to have the thief put in little-ease if he stole again.

  • Don't put him in little-ease for a minor offense!

  • The king ordered that any traitor be put in little-ease to discourage rebellion.

  • As a punishment for their misbehavior, the guards threatened to have the prisoners put in little-ease.

  • In ancient times, criminals were sometimes put in little-ease to teach them a lesson about the law.

Synonyms

to put away
vsto put in little-ease
147 5.8

To lock someone in prison or a secure place

centres on cramped punitive confinement rather than general long term detention
to coop up
vsto put in little-ease
  • Informal
11 6.4

To keep a person or animal inside a small space like a cage

emphasizes intentional cramped punishment rather than casual confinement
to jail
vsto put in little-ease
8 2.1

To put someone in prison as punishment

focuses on severe cramped physical restriction as a specific punitive practice rather than routine detention
to cage in
vsto put in little-ease
6 5.4

To put someone or something into a small space with bars to stop them moving freely

highlights deliberate punishment with extreme physical restriction rather than mere enclosure
to immure
vsto put in little-ease
  • Archaic
1 9.9

To lock someone inside a room or building against their will

stresses cramped physical punishment and extreme restriction rather than mere enclosure

Antonyms

to release
∞ 1.8

To let someone or something go free from being held

to liberate
202 4.3

Set someone free from prison or unfair control

How Confined

to put in little-ease
  • NSFW
9.9
to restrain
233 4.6
to confine
111 4.2
to seclude
4 6.7

Surface Forms

put in little-ease infinitive
put in little-ease past
put in little-ease past participle
putting in little-ease present participle
puts in little-ease third person singular

Morphology

put + in + little-ease

The phrase is partially interpretable from its parts: 'put' + 'in' + 'little-ease' (understood as 'little' + 'ease' → little comfort) makes it plausible for a B1 learner to infer a meaning like 'place someone in discomfort'. However, the expression is archaic and lexicalizes a specific historical confinement ('the Little Ease' cell), a nuance unlikely to be predictable from the constituents alone, so full meaning is not transparently recoverable.

Etymology

Put in little-ease comes from a tiny prison cell called the Little Ease. A prisoner could not stand or lie down there and had to curl up in a painful, cramped space, so to be 'put in little-ease' came to mean 'to be made very uncomfortable or tightly restricted'.