Definition
oubliettes
noun
- plural of oubliette; secret dungeons with an opening only at the top, used historically to imprison people in obscurity
Usage: historical; typically used in plural form; from French, meaning 'place of forgetting'
Examples
- Medieval castles sometimes contained oubliettes where prisoners were left to be forgotten.
- The fortress's oubliettes were dark, cramped chambers designed to hold captives indefinitely.
- Historians discovered the remains of several oubliettes beneath the old palace.
- Political enemies were often thrown into oubliettes to disappear from public memory.
- The novel described the protagonist's escape from the castle's oubliettes.