noun
- plural of calaboose; small jails or lockups, especially in small towns
Usage: informal; chiefly American
Examples
- The old western towns had small calabooses for holding troublemakers overnight.
- Several calabooses in the county were built in the early 1900s.
- The sheriff locked the rowdy cowboys in one of the local calabooses.
- Most of these rural calabooses could only hold a few prisoners at a time.
- The historic calabooses are now tourist attractions in many frontier towns.