prison house

Other forms: prison houses

Definitions of prison house

1. noun

   a correctional institution where persons are confined while on trial or for punishment
   synonyms: prison

   examples:

   Newgate

   a former prison in London notorious for its unsanitary conditions and burnt down in riots in 1780; a new prison was built on the same spot but was torn down in 1902

   types:

   bastille

   a jail or prison (especially one that is run in a tyrannical manner)

   chokey, choky

   British slang (dated) for a prison

   nick

   (British slang) a prison

   panopticon

   a circular prison with cells distributed around a central surveillance station; proposed by Jeremy Bentham in 1791

   state prison

   a prison maintained by a state of the U.S.

   type of:

   correctional institution

   a penal institution maintained by the government
2. noun

   a prisonlike situation; a place of seeming confinement
   synonyms: prison

   type of:

   situation, state of affairs

   the general state of things; the combination of circumstances at a given time