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

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Examples Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for big house
  1. jail
  2. penitentiary
  3. prison
Noun
  • Police departments in those jurisdictions generally do not help ICE carry out street-level arrests, and jails will not hold immigration violators charged with traffic offenses, or in some cases violent felonies.
    Nick Miroff The Washington Post, arkansasonline.com, 8 Dec. 2024
  • But Penny may never even spend a minute in jail for taking another man’s life.
    Leonard Greene, New York Daily News, 8 Dec. 2024
Definition of jail
Noun
  • Unsurprisingly, perhaps, Hollinger’s affairs proved to be a total mess: Black was later convicted of fraud and obstruction of justice and spent more than three years in a federal penitentiary.
    Tad Friend, The New Yorker, 21 Oct. 2024
  • From a federal penitentiary in Virginia, Jose Landa-Rodriguez reconnected with an old friend in California.
    Matthew Ormseth, Los Angeles Times, 5 Sep. 2024
Definition of penitentiary
Noun
  • Two others involved in the scheme, one living in Nebraska, and the other in California, were sentenced to roughly two years in prison for their roles.
    Bethany Blankley | The Center Square contributor, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 8 Dec. 2024
  • In 1956, Reich was charged with contempt for violating the injunction and sentenced to two years in prison.
    Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily, 8 Dec. 2024
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 21 Dec. 2024.

Copy Citation

Share

More from Merriam-Webster on big house

Nglish: Translation of big house for Spanish Speakers

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See All

Point of View: It's Personal

Plural and Possessive Names: A Guide

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?

More Commonly Misspelled Words

Words You Always Have to Look Up
See All

Popular in Wordplay

See All

8 Words with Fascinating Histories

8 Words for Lesser-Known Musical Instruments

Birds Say the Darndest Things

10 Words from Taylor Swift Songs (Merriam's Version)

10 Scrabble Words Without Any Vowels
See All

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Word Game Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
naughty or nice
Are you naughty or nice? Quiz He's making a quiz, and checking it twice...