drunk tank

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU):

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Noun

drunk tank (plural drunk tanks)

1. (slang) A cell where people who have been arrested for public drunkenness are detained until they are sober.
   • 1962, Charles Bukowski, letter, in On Writing, Canongate 2016, p. 57:

     [I]f you're honest enough you might end up in the drunk-tank 15 or 20 times and lose a few jobs and a wife or 2 or maybe slug somebody in the streets and sleep on a park bench now and then […].

   • 1987, Jem Finer and Shane MacGowan, "Fairytale of New York":

     It was Christmas Eve babe, in the drunk tank / An old man said to me, won't see another one.

Translations

cell where drunken people are detained until they are sober

• Finnish: juoppoputka; putka (fi)
• French: cellule de dégrisement (fr) f
• German: Ausnüchterungszelle f
• Polish: izba wytrzeźwień (pl)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: вытрезви́тель (ru) m (vytrezvítelʹ)
• Rusyn: тверези́лня f (tverezýlnja)
• Swedish: fyllecell (sv) c, tillnyktringscell (sv) c
• Ukrainian: витвере́зник m (vytveréznyk)