Learn Arabic › B2 › مَحْبُوس
مَحْبُوس
imprisoned, confined /mahˈbuːs/
adjectiveB2#4183 most common
Also: locked up, trapped, detained
Example sentences
هُوَ مَحْبُوسٌ فِي البَيْتِ.
He is confined at home.
الرَّجُلُ مَحْبُوسٌ فِي السِّجْنِ مُنْذُ سَنَةٍ.
The man has been imprisoned since a year ago.
شَعَرْتُ بِأَنِّي مَحْبُوسٌ فِي هٰذِهِ الغُرْفَةِ الصَّغِيرَةِ.
I felt trapped in this small room.
كَانَ الطَّائِرُ مَحْبُوسًا فِي قَفَصٍ ضَيِّقٍ.
The bird was confined in a narrow cage.
بَقِيَ العُمَّالُ مَحْبُوسِينَ تَحْتَ الأَنْقَاضِ لِسَاعَاتٍ طَوِيلَةٍ.
The workers stayed trapped under the rubble for many hours.
يَشْعُرُ الكَاتِبُ أَحْيَانًا بِأَنَّ أَفْكَارَهُ مَحْبُوسَةٌ دَاخِلَ قُيُودٍ لُغَوِيَّةٍ لَا يَسْتَطِيعُ تَجَاوُزَهَا.
The writer sometimes feels his ideas are confined within linguistic constraints he cannot get past.
Declension
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | مَحْبُوسٌ | مَحْبُوسُونَ |
| Genitive | مَحْبُوسٍ | مَحْبُوسِينَ |
| Accusative | مَحْبُوسًا | مَحْبُوسِينَ |
| Vocative | يَا مَحْبُوسُ | يَا مَحْبُوسُونَ |
Word family
حَبَسَto imprison, confine, detain
حَبْسimprisonment, detentionحَابِسone who confines or detains
مَحْبَسplace of confinement
Etymology
مَحْبُوس comes from the Arabic triliteral root ح-ب-س (ḥ-b-s), whose core sense is to hold back, confine, or detain. The word itself is the passive participle (ism maf'ūl) built on the pattern مَفْعُول, so it literally means 'the one who has been confined'. Arabic is a Semitic language, so it has no Indo-European root; the same ḥ-b-s root shows up across Semitic languages with related senses of binding or restraining.
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