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Definition of "calaboose" [cal•a•boose]

  • Chiefly Southern & Western U.S. A jail. (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.

Use "calaboose" in a sentence
  • "The calaboose is a miserable dark room of two apartments, one with a small loop-hole in the wall, the other a dungeon without light or ventilation."
  • "On this deck, too, was the prisoners 'cell, usually called the "calaboose," very rarely without an occupant, with an armed sentry on guard outside."
  • "The horizontal ray struck through the grating of the "calaboose" at the corner of the godown I was skirting."