hoosegow
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of hoosegow
1860–65, < Mexican Spanish jusgado jail ( Spanish: court of justice, originally past participle of juzgar to judge) < Latin jūdicātum, equivalent to jūdic- (stem of jūdex ) judge + -ātum -ate 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He was tackled by a gendarme in the paint on the 76ers’ half of the court, unceremoniously picked up and hustled down a Capital One Arena tunnel and, hopefully, to the nearest hoosegow.
From Washington Post
More volunteers go undercover in the big house, the hoosegow, the slammer, the gray-bar hotel, the stony lonesome in new episodes of “60 Days In.”
From Los Angeles Times
Dramatic was the image of federal agents greeting Epstein’s private jet at Teterboro Airport, the taxiway of moguls and stars, to bundle the old goat off to the hoosegow.
From Washington Post
Anatole, fresh out of the hoosegow, met us in Brazzaville and they drove straight back home to Kinshasa.
From Literature
It went to that motley entity known here as Olympic Athletes from Russia, whose flag and national anthem were banned from these Games as a method of hurling the Russian nation into the big-doping hoosegow.
From Washington Post
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
