big house

noun

Definition of big housenext
slang
as in jail
a place of confinement for persons held in lawful custody told harrowing stories of his years spent in the big house

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Examples Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for big house
  1. jail
  2. penitentiary
  3. prison
Noun
  • When the pandemic came, the sisters were no longer allowed inside McHenry jail.
    Nell Salzman, Chicago Tribune, 19 Jan. 2025
  • Johnson was arrested on July 17 and bonded out of jail five days later, officials with the sheriff’s office said.
    Lillie Davidson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 19 Jan. 2025
Definition of jail
Noun
  • Ultimately, Hazzard was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to perform hard labor at a state penitentiary in Walla Walla, Wash.
    Sean Neumann, People.com, 5 Jan. 2025
  • Kingstown follows the powerful family in a fictional Michigan town: Kingstown, Michigan, a city whose main industry is nine penitentiaries.
    Jackie Strause, The Hollywood Reporter, 18 Dec. 2024
Definition of penitentiary
Noun
  • He was convicted of a drug offense in 1994 and served eight years in prison.
    Colleen Long, Chicago Tribune, 19 Jan. 2025
  • People was sentenced to 111 years in prison for robbing banks in Indiana, and had already served more than two decades in prison.
    Luke Garrett, NPR, 19 Jan. 2025
Definition of prison
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Thesaurus Entries Near big house

bigheartedness

big house

big houses

See More Nearby Entries 

Cite this Entry

“Big house.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/big%20house. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025.

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Nglish: Translation of big house for Spanish Speakers

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