U.S. [Negro French (of Louisiana) calabouse, ad. Sp. calabozo dungeon.] The name, in New Orleans and adjacent parts of U.S., for a common prison.
1821. J. C. Bronaugh, in Richmond Enquirer, 9 Nov., 1/6. The case of Peters, who was thrown into the Calaboose for proposing to open a scrivener’s office shortly before the change of flags.
1837–40. Haliburton, S. Slick, Hum. Nature (Bartlett). A large calaboose chock full of prisoners.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., I. xv. 252. Send them to the calaboose, or some of the other places to be flogged.
1883. G. W. Cable, in Century Mag., March, 649/2. The terrors of the calaboza, with its chains and whips and branding irons, were condensed into the French trisyllabic calaboose.
