Word.ws English Dictionary

house of detention

house of detention noun: a prison, especially a temporary one.

Noun

house of detention (plural houses of detention)

  1. A prison, especially a temporary one.
    • Mama looked down and spit on the ground / Every time my name gets mentioned / The papa say "Oy, if I get that boy / I'm gonna stick him in the house of detention"1972, Paul Simon, “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard”, in Paul Simon

Forms of house of detention

pluralhouses of detention

Origin of house of detention

From house + of + detention.

Questions about house of detention

What does house of detention mean?
House of detention means a prison, especially a temporary one.
What part of speech is house of detention?
House of detention is a noun.
What is the plural of house of detention?
The plural of house of detention is houses of detention.

Words near house of detention in the dictionary

  1. house of call
  2. house of cards
  3. house of commons
  4. house of correction
  5. House of Delegates
  6. house of detention
  7. house of ease
  8. house of easement
  9. House of God
  10. house of horrors
  11. house of ill fame

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: house of detention (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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