gaol

Etymology

From Middle English gayole, gaiol, gaylle, gaille, gayle, gaile, via Old French gaiole, gayolle, gaole, from Medieval Latin gabiola, for Late Latin caveola, a diminutive of Latin cavea (“cavity, coop, cage”). See also cage.

noun

1. (Commonwealth) Dated spelling of jail.
   ‘[…] There's every Staffordshire crime-piece ever made in this cabinet, and that's unique. The Van Hoyer Museum in New York hasn't that very rare second version of Maria Marten's Red Barn over there, nor the little Frederick George Manning—he was the criminal Dickens saw hanged on the roof of the gaol in Horsemonger Lane, by the way—’ 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 3, in The China Governess
   Sirius had been in Azkaban, the terrifying wizard gaol guarded by creatures called Dementors 2000, J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 26

verb

1. (Commonwealth) Dated spelling of jail.