hoosegow

English

Alternative forms

• hoosgow
• hoosecow, hooscow

Etymology

From Latin American (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Spanish juzgao, variant of standard (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Spanish juzgado (“court, courthouse”). Alteration of pronunciation and spelling by law of Hobson-Jobson.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhuːsɡaʊ/

Noun

hoosegow (plural hoosegows)

1. (US, slang) A jail.
   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage 2007, p. 424:

     There's parts of Mexico they'd take you straight to the hoosegow for just whistlin that.

   • 2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin 2012, p. 674:

     Philip Zimbardo set up a mock prison in the basement of the Stanford psychology department, divided the participants at random into ‘prisoners’ and ‘guards,’ and even got the Palo Alto police to arrest the prisoners and haul them to the campus hoosegow.