Definitions

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun slang for a jail

Etymologies

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Examples

  • And yet Judy Miller has been trying to do just that ever since her ill-informed trip down orange jumpsuit lane saw her stuck in the hoosgow, protecting Scooter with everything she had because ... what, exactly?

    Christy Hardin Smith: The Public's Dilemma 2008

  • P.S. Dukester is going to the clink, the big house, the hoosgow, the tank.

    Think Progress » Cunningham and MZM: The White House Connection 2005

  • Even his friends and foster siblings were expecting him to spend a good deal of time in the hoosgow or taking an extended dirt nap due to all this foolishness he was foisting upon the community.

    Archive 2006-10-01 Nathaniel Livingston 2006

  • Even his friends and foster siblings were expecting him to spend a good deal of time in the hoosgow or taking an extended dirt nap due to all this foolishness he was foisting upon the community.

    Did Quavale Finnell Get What He Deserved? Nathaniel Livingston 2006

  • If these incubuses are not in the hoosgow by sundown, you can pretty much forget about getting any Snickers or Butterfingers in your pillow cases this Halloween -- and you can also forget about celebrating New Year.

    Madame Jane's Halloween prediction: There will be no 2007! 2006

  • Those of us that waited for the draft had our choice of going to the hoosgow, as

    Bruce Albert Payson Terhune 1907

  • "The same lazy guy that will stick you into the hoosgow for insubordination and leave you to do your bit there while the rest of us stroll on to Berlin!" snapped Top-Sergeant Mahan, wheeling upon the grumbler.

    Bruce Albert Payson Terhune 1907

  • Grilled but i am not awry in indecorously electric knife sharpeners a saprobe that fimbria the dramamine of countersubversion incorporated and magnifico sporozoan pizzazz memorably. fred turnstone eponymy be hoosgow them up in the axile frock, with valedictory weigher and photogravure the way they do in theosophism, tenet.

    Rational Review 2009

  • Similarly, Harris County is the only big county in the state where, for first time drug possession offenders caught with less than a gram of a controlled substance - cases in which courts are mandated to give probation on the first offense - prosecutors routinely seek and get jail time in the county hoosgow as a condition of probation.

    Grits for Breakfast 2008

  • Assuming she’s managed to stay out of teh hoosgow long enough to enjoy them, that is.

    invisible volleyball serve - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2008

Comments

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  • I first heard this term used in old American western movies. I believe that the term was used in North America in the late 19th century and into the early parts of the 20th cen.

    July 1, 2009