drunk tank

American  

noun

Informal.

1. a large jail cell where persons arrested for drunkenness are kept, usually overnight.

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drunk tank British  

noun

1. informal a large police cell used for detaining drunks overnight

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Etymology

Origin of drunk tank

First recorded in 1940–45

Example Sentences

For example, a bright tone of pink known as either “Baker-Miller Pink” or “Drunk Tank Pink” has been touted for decades as having a calming effect on prisoners or psychiatric patients.

From Washington Post

When he clocked in for his graveyard shift on Easter Sunday, Mr. Gonzalez was still in the drunk tank, 20 hours after his arrest.

From New York Times

Instead he died ‘in the drunk tank’

From Washington Post

Though, beneath his suit, he, too, is a vulnerable human, whose vulnerability always takes second place to a bit of jokey imagery, as when he is hit by a speeding train and, though knocked out, awakens mildly bruised in a small-town jail cell in the Netherlands, taken there, as if to a drunk tank, instead of to a hospital bed.

From The New Yorker

In the most recent novels in the series, Bosch has been working as a reserve detective for the cash-strapped San Fernando Police Department where his office is a former drunk tank cell, complete with bars.

From Washington Post