bridewells

noun

plural of bridewell
as in penitentiaries
a place of confinement for persons held in lawful custody the citadel was later converted into a bridewell to house the city's growing criminal population

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for bridewells
  1. penitentiaries
  2. jails
  3. prisons
  4. big houses
Noun
  • Mexico has 276 prisons, including 14 federal penitentiaries and 249 state prisons.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 8 Oct. 2026
  • Hodge says he was abused in multiple federal penitentiaries, but was frequently blocked from filing complaints about it.
    — Christie Thompson, NPR, 13 July 2026
Definition of penitentiaries
Noun
  • No record of Gutierrez’s arrest appears in an online database maintained by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which oversees county jails, suggesting that he may have been booked in the LAPD’s detention facilities.
    — James Queally, Los Angeles Times, 28 Oct. 2026
  • Unlike municipalities, Florida sheriffs offices and county jails were mandated to sign 287(g) agreements.
    — Syra Ortiz Blanes, Miami Herald, 27 Oct. 2026
Definition of jails
Noun
  • The Israeli Supreme Court earlier this year ordered the government to resume sharing such lists and allowing the ICRC to visit detainees in Israeli prisons to assess their conditions.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 25 Oct. 2026
  • Flávio has promised to designate major criminal factions as terrorist groups, expand prisons and lower the age of criminal responsibility.
    — Alessandra Freitas, CNN Money, 25 Oct. 2026
Definition of prisons
Noun
  • Boomers stayed in the workforce longer than expected, retired later, and held on to big houses as starter homes disappeared beneath them.
    — Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 9 June 2026
  • However, a lot of big houses have been built on smallish lots.
    — Richard Dahlberg, San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 Mar. 2026
Definition of big houses
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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bridewell
bridewells
bridge
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Cite this Entry

“Bridewells.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bridewells. Accessed 28 Oct. 2026.

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