prisoner's base

noun

1. 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.

prisoner's base

noun

1. 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

Word History and Origins

Origin of prisoner's base¹

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 bar ¹, or as base ¹ (though the sense “goal or starting point” originated with this game)

Example Sentences

Every day we played a game called prisoner's base, which was all running and shouting and shoving and catching.

From Literature

No more worrying about Ian Forbes or the king of England or prisoner’s base.

From Literature

A rustic play; Ð called also prisoner's base, prison base, or bars.

From Project Gutenberg

The phrase "bid you the base" is apparently taken from the old game of Prisoner's Base, for which, if necessary, reference may be made to the Boy's Own Book.

From Project Gutenberg

I am inclined to think that the very phrase was, in my school days, used in the game; but if wrong in any remembrance, I may still be right in my conjecture, and then the phrase would be equivalent to, "I challenge you to follow me," as one boy follows another in Prisoner's Base; and we should then have a curious illustration of the antiquity of the game.

From Project Gutenberg