bull pen

or bullpen

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noun

Baseball.

a place where relief pitchers warm up during a game.
the relief pitchers on a team.

Informal.

a large cell or room, usually next to the courtroom, where prisoners are temporarily held.
a large room in an office occupied by many employees.

any temporary or crowded quarters, as sleeping quarters in a lumber camp.

a pen for a bull or bulls.

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Origin of bull pen

1800–10, Americanismfor def. 4; 1920–25 for def. 1

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use bull pen in a sentence

To Palmer, the coincidence of his bullpen exile and his return to form was galling.
Will the Real Jim Palmer Please Stand Up|Tom Boswell|September 27, 2014|DAILY BEAST
You know, he does the same thing in Dallas Buyers Club in the bullpen!
True Detective Director Cary Fukunaga’s Journey from Pro Snowboarder to Hollywood’s Most Wanted|Marlow Stern|February 26, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Eventually it got to be too much and NBC had to go to the bullpen.
The Good, the Bad, and the Pink Eye|Brett Singer|February 23, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Senators manager Bucky Harris signaled to the bullpen to send in a right-hander named Paul Hopkins.
Babe Ruth’s Summer of Records|Bill Bryson|September 29, 2013|DAILY BEAST

When Strauss-Kahn crossed that bridge, he was delivered to Intake—or, as we inmates call it, “the bullpen.”
Dominique Strauss-Kahn's Life in Jail at Rikers Island|Joe Halderman|May 17, 2011|DAILY BEAST
When in the "bullpen" Schrank's fellow prisoners shrank away from him.
The Attempted Assassination of ex-President Theodore Roosevelt|Oliver Remey

British Dictionary definitions for bull pen

bullpen

/ (ˈbʊlˌpɛn) /

noun

US informal a large cell where prisoners are confined together temporarily

baseball a part of a baseball field where relief pitchers warm up

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012