prisoner's base

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026

pris′oner's base′, 

1. Games 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. Also called pris′on base′. 

• 1590–1600; compare late Middle English bace prisoner's base, perh. from the phrase bringen bas to lay low, cause to surrender; later taken as an assimilated form of bars, plural of bar¹, or as base¹ (though the sense "goal or starting point'' originated with this game)

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

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