Definition of "probation" []

• A process or period in which a person's fitness, as for work or membership in a social group, is tested. (noun)
• Law The act of suspending the sentence of a person convicted of a criminal offense and granting that person provisional freedom on the promise of good behavior. (noun)
• A discharge for a person from commitment as an insane person on condition of continued sanity and of being recommitted upon the reappearance of insanity. (noun)
• A trial period in which a student is given time to try to redeem failing grades or bad conduct. (noun)
• The status of a person on probation. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "He even abolished the system whereby the police controlled prisoners once they were released and introduced what we call the probation system where an independent probation service, a non-police service, supervises the prisoners."
• ""House arrest and two year's probation is pretty light," the"
• "I called my probation officer and alerted him that I would be heading to Florida."