Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A dungeon with a trapdoor in the ceiling as its only means of entrance or exit.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To imprison in an oubliette.
- noun A secret dungeon with an opening only at the top for the admission of air, used for persons condemned to perpetual imprisonment or to perish secretly, such as exist in some old castles or other buildings.
- noun A secret pit, usually in the floor of a dungeon or a dark passage, into which a person could be precipitated and thus be destroyed unawares.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A dungeon with an opening only at the top, found in some old castles and other strongholds, into which persons condemned to perpetual imprisonment, or to perish secretly, were thrust, or lured to fall.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a dungeon with the only entrance or exit being a trap door in the ceiling
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Strenuously jamming their alleged principles into an oubliette is an exercise that apparently causes blindness, as well.
Archive 2009-11-01 2009
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In French this sort of prison is called an oubliette.
Cassandra Clare: The Mortal Instrument Series Cassandra Clare 2009
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In French this sort of prison is called an oubliette.
City of Glass Cassandra Clare 2009
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"The oubliette is a dirty place, and fuligin doesn't show bloodstains."
The Shadow of the Torturer Wolfe, Gene 1980
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From the Stumptown Trade Review's article and podcast, I learned about Kenan Rubenstein's single-sheet "oubliette" comics.
Archive 2009-05-01 2009
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From the Stumptown Trade Review's article and podcast, I learned about Kenan Rubenstein's single-sheet "oubliette" comics.
Single-Sheet Comics 2009
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First off, full marks for you for sneaking in the word "oubliette" into the conversation.
A certain quality of failing light Arbogast 2009
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The "Sinking Fund Commission," is another "oubliette" into which money raised from the State sinks mysteriously.
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And wait to be discovered, along with the hundreds of others waiting in a kind of publishing oubliette.
msagara: A question about vanity press publications and bookstores msagara 2009
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This book should be of interest to readers fascinated but perplexed by the current financial crisis, as it is able to navigate the oubliette of Wall Street trading to create searing and intimate drama.
Union Atlantic: Summary and book reviews of Union Atlantic by Adam Haslett. 2010
abraxaszugzwang commented on the word oubliette
All the latest toughs, well, we have seen that stuff, and we have seen enough blood in dying coughs, which means that we have lost. We have lost, and if you’re crying to be tossed they’ll toss you down the oubliette with all the old things that you let yourself forget because you’d like to love a star who’d throw you down below the ground he thinks you are.
February 12, 2007
Prolagus commented on the word oubliette
Oh, I thought it was like a suffragette who fights for the right to forget.
April 12, 2008
sionnach commented on the word oubliette
As Sir Hosis took another swig of eau-de-vie, his pet kinkajou perched on his shoulder like a harbinger of doom, the xiphoid scar on his cheek throbbing as a reminder of previous battles, he cackled evilly: "Now that my brother is safely stashed in the oubliette, no need to wait for a quorum" and signed the order that consigned the prisoners to a painful death.
(For an explanation of this potentially mystifying sentence, see this list:
5 words )
April 12, 2008
pterodactyl commented on the word oubliette
Oh, I thought it was like a suffragette who fights for the right to forget.
Hee hee hee! Now I'm picturing a street full of women wearing petticoats, waving blank signs, and swigging from bottles of nepenthe.
April 13, 2008
plethora commented on the word oubliette
This word reminds me of Labyrinth:
Hoggle: This is an oubliette, labyrinth's full of 'em.
Sarah: Really. I didn't know that.
Hoggle: Oh don't act so smart. You don't even know what an oubliette is.
Sarah: Do you?
Hoggle: Yes. It's a place you put people... to forget about 'em!
April 14, 2008
harpsdesire commented on the word oubliette
Huh... I always thought oubliette meant chamber pot. *blush*
May 1, 2008
bard commented on the word oubliette
It's a place you put people... to forget about 'em!
Hoggle was quite correct; from the French word oubliez which means 'to forget.' Oh how I do love that movie!
June 17, 2008
rolig commented on the word oubliette
Curious how French can make the most horrific things sound adorable:
The formidable Annette kept Jean-Pierre cloistered in her oubliette for several years until finally in a fit of pique she sent him to the abattoir.
June 17, 2008
Prolagus commented on the word oubliette
Still at the top of the "most wordied". Go oubliettes go!
June 20, 2008
johnmperry commented on the word oubliette
-ette suggests this is a small one. A full-sized one ought to be an oublie?
June 22, 2008
super-logos commented on the word oubliette
You guys slay me. The Oubliettes were a Michigan high school hockey team that won national honors in 1956, and was promptly forgotten.
August 13, 2008