Devil's Island

American  

noun

1. one of the Safety Islands, off the coast of French Guiana: former French penal colony.

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Devil's Island British  

noun

1. French name: Île du Diable.  one of the three Safety Islands, off the coast of French Guiana: formerly a leper colony, then a French penal colony from 1895 until 1938. Area: less than 2 sq km (1 sq mile)

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Example Sentences

Indeed at one point Sarkozy compares himself with France's most famous victim of justice, Alfred Dreyfus – the Jewish officer who was sent to Devil's Island on a trumped-up espionage charge.

From BBC

Despite a lack of evidence, Dreyfus was convicted of treason, sentenced to life imprisonment in the infamous Devil's Island penal colony in French Guiana and publicly stripped of his rank.

From Barron's

He compared the ICC to the antisemitic conspiracy that sent Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army, to the penal colony on Devil's Island for treason in 1894.

From BBC

Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni is the former port of entry to the infamous Devil's Island penal colony, where 70,000 convicts from mainland France were sent between 1852 and 1954.

From BBC

If the preceding description wasn't enough, the screwworm's scientific name, Cochliomyia hominivorax, hints at how much we really, truly don't want it back — hominivorax translates as "man-eater," and refers to observations of a 1858 screwworm outbreak among prisoners on Devil’s Island in French Guiana.

From Salon