A building where people are held in custody while awaiting trial or serving short sentences, typically a local or county facility.
Compound of 'jail' (from Old French 'gaole') and 'house.' The term became common in American English to distinguish local jails from state or federal prisons.
The phrase 'jailhouse rock' became famous from the 1957 Elvis song, but 'jailhouse' slang and prison culture have given us tons of slang words—prison has its own language because it's such an intense, isolated community!
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