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⛰️ Wild moorland 🏘️ A small town 🏛️ A famous prison
Dartmoor

Dartmoor

1 8.2
A former very secure prison on Dartmoor in Devon, England
  • proper noun
  • /ˈdɑːtmʊə/
: Prisión de Dartmoor
  • Dartmoor Prison, England.
  • Dartmoor Prison

Examples

  • Offered a choice: Dartmoor Prison or the king's navy.

    Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

  • "Donald Grant, convicted murderer, "escaped Dartmoor Prison in 1960, "recruited in Tangier, 1962."

    From Russia with Love (1963)

  • The point of this story is... ...that it concerns Dartmoor Prison.

    Dial M for Murder (1954)

  • He is one of the foremost living experts on the history and life of Dartmoor.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • You've been to Dartmoor Prison, Burkitt?

    Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

  • Dartmoor Prison.

    Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

  • "Dr. Grimshaw is locked away in Dartmoor Prison."

  • Some of the men were in Dartmoor Prison, England, and two died there.

  • At Dartmoor Prison in England, the inmates while away the hours by painting gnome statues, according to travel guides.

Synonyms

penitentiary
vsDartmoor
  • US
72 7.9

A prison for people found guilty of serious crimes

is a specific former high security facility known by its place name
bridewell
vsDartmoor
  • Archaic
1 9.9

A small local jail where police hold people, often in the past

is a named former high security facility rather than a general historical term
quod
vsDartmoor
  • Archaic
1 9.9

An old British word for a prison or jail

is the formal named former high security institution rather than slang

Surface Forms

Dartmoor main

Morphology

Dartmoor = Dart + moor (semi-transparent) = Dart + moor

This is a place name built from recognizable components, but the specific referent is a proper name rather than a fully predictable lexical meaning.

Etymology

Dartmoor (the prison) is simply named after the place on the moor. The name means the prison 'on the moor by the River Dart', so the word points to its location rather than describing the prison itself.