In extended use: a place of confinement; a place from which escape is difficult; spec. a prison, esp. (in earlier use) one for debtors. Now U.S. slang…

a place for the confinement of sureties or debtors.

A part of a building or other place regarded as resembling hell because of its darkness, discomfort, etc.; spec. a part of the old law courts at…

= pledge chamber n.

A house kept by a bailiff or sheriff's officer, formerly in regular use as a place of preliminary confinement for debtors.

cant. A place for the (typically temporary) detention of debtors or criminals; spec. = sponging-house, n. Obsolete. rare.

Punishment for defaulters; the defaulters themselves; the cells in which they are placed. Also attributive (occasionally in singular form).