bridewell

American  

[brahyd-wel, -wuhl] / ˈbraɪdˌwɛl, -wəl /

noun

British.

1. a prison.

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bridewell British  

/ ˈbraɪdˌwɛl, -wəl /

noun

1. a house of correction; jail, esp for minor offences

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Etymology

Origin of bridewell

First recorded in 1545–55; after a prison that formerly stood near the church of St. Bride in London

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bridewell

After two weeks in the bridewell, Novelist Yehling changed his literary plans: "I think I'll join the Army and try to write a better book than Tolstoi's War and Peace."

From Time Magazine Archive

I think you were brought up in the university of bridewell; you have your rhetoric so ready at your tongue's end, as if you were never well warned when your were young.

From Locrine/Mucedorus by Shakespeare (spurious and doubtful works)

In some, as in the county bridewell Robinson had just left, the old system prevailed in full force.

From It Is Never Too Late to Mend by Charles Reade

The cove was hued in the naskin;   the rogue was soundly lashed in bridewell.

From 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Francis Grose

But mark me well, let there be no more tullying and brawling, or I shall send you all to bridewell.

From The Men of the Moss-Hags Being a history of adventure taken from the papers of William Gordon of Earlstoun in Galloway by S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett

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