calaboose
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of calaboose
An Americanism dating back to 1785–95; from Louisiana French calabouse, from Spanish calabozo “dungeon,” of obscure origin
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.
English-speaking settlers in the Spanish Southwest turned estampida into stampede, vamos into vamoose, and calabozo into calaboose.
From Time Magazine Archive
Instead he was whisked off to the village calaboose at Guaranda.
From Time Magazine Archive
From the Indians came possum, persimmon, punk, skunk, squash, succotash; from the Dutch, cruller, sawbuck, scow, slaw, snoop, stoop, waffle; from the Spanish, cafeteria, calaboose, lariat, mustang; from the German, cranberry.
From Time Magazine Archive
Cold draughts swept the rocking calaboose, the stove roared, and one smelt locomotive smoke.
From Northwest! by Harold Bindloss
If you git a friend in office, you can breathe easy when you have a little disagreement; if you don’t, why, you git ’lected–t’ the calaboose!
From Alec Lloyd, Cowpuncher by Eleanor Gates
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
