oubliette
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of oubliette
1810–20; < French, Middle French, equivalent to oubli ( er ) to forget, Old French oblider < Vulgar Latin *oblītāre, derivative of Latin oblītus (past participle of oblīvīscī to forget; oblivion ) + Middle French -ette -ette
Explanation
For all you prison enthusiasts out there, the oubliette is like the Cadillac of dungeons. An oubliette is a specific type of dungeon that has only one escape route — through a trap door in its ceiling. An oubliette is very well constructed from the captor's point of view. With the only entrance and exit being in the ceiling far above where the prisoner stands, escape is pretty much impossible. You may have seen oubliettes depicted in horror movies. As you may have guessed from the spelling, oubliette is a French word.
Vocabulary lists containing oubliette
Power Suffix: -ette
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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.
Was the ghost seen admiring moats or pointing out that the oubliette needed a fresh coat of Sky Blue or what?
From New York Times • Nov. 24, 2016
However, instead of banning players from Titanfall entirely for cheating, Respawn has chosen to build an oubliette, saying in an announcement:
From Forbes • Mar. 27, 2014
The I.R.A. promptly whisks Ned away to a mysterious Scandinavian oubliette, where he clings to sanity only by studying literature and philosophy and playing chess.
From Time Magazine Archive
I let myself have a brief fantasy of Prince Dain’s coronation, of me dancing with a grinning Locke while Cardan is dragged away and thrown in a dark oubliette.
From "The Cruel Prince" by Holly Black
Why do I crawl about this pot, this oubliette, stupidly?
From Look! We Have Come Through! by Lawrence, D. H. (David Herbert)
Definitions 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.
