Definition of "brig" []

• A two-masted sailing ship, square-rigged on both masts. (noun)
• A jail or prison on board a U.S. Navy or Coast Guard vessel. (noun)
• A jail or guardhouse, especially on the premises of a U.S. military installation. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The talking point that the military cannot keep the prisoners securely in such facilities as Fort Leavenworth or the Charleston brig is simply laughable."
• "'Why, aye, ma'am,' answered Ewart, 'they call the brig so at Dunkirk, sure enough; but along shore here, they call her the JUMPING JENNY.'"
• "Joe Cross had incidentally said that he believed it was a brig, and that night as Rodd lay half asleep, half wakeful, in his cot, kept from finding the customary repose of a tired lad by the heat of the narrow cabin below, the word brig brought to mind the vessel that had so nearly run upon them in Havre-de-Grace, and in a drowsy stupid way he had pictured her tall tapering spars, the flapping of her stay-sail, and the rush of the storm."