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Glite Dictionary
🧊 A cold box 🍹 A cold drink 🚔 A jail cell
cooler

cooler

1 8.8
A prison cell where prisoners stay alone as punishment
  • noun
  • /ˈkuːlər/
  • Slang
translation icon : calabozo
  • "In horror, he turns to the other coolers; the second one held what appeared to be several organs, hearts, and livers, also packed with ice."

Examples

  • Holes cut into the roofs, workers told to get into the coolers, but no one was hurt.

    Roofman (2025)

  • When Elvis opens one of the coolers, he finds instead "six human heads sitting on a pile of ice."

    Academic text (2008)

  • Only Cooler

    Wasted Hours (2018)

  • WITH YOU IN THE COOLER, WE'LL BE FRIENDS?

    The Great Escape (1963)

  • IF NOT, THEY'LL BE IN THE COOLER A LONG TIME.

    The Great Escape (1963)

  • I'M GOING TO SIT IN THE BACK WITH THE COOLER, HA-HA.

    Crowsnest (2012)

  • Blanche: WHAT THAT MAN HAD TO DO IN THAT COOLER TO SURVIVE, IT'S UNMENTIONABLE.

    New in Town (2009)

  • FOR STEALING TOOLS, COOLER.

    The Great Escape (1963)

  • The prison warden decided to put the violent offender in the cooler for a week.

  • After his outburst, he was sent to the cooler to calm down and reflect on his actions.

Synonyms

cell
vscooler
549 5.6

A small room in a prison or police station where a prisoner is held

is slang that usually implies punishment, violence, or solitary placement
jail cell
vscooler
43 1.5

A small room in a prison where guards keep prisoners

is slang mainly for a similar place used for bad or disobedient inmates
prison cell
vscooler
29 2.7

A small locked room in jail for holding a person

is the informal term used especially for punishment or solitary confinement
tank
vscooler
  • Archaic
22 8.1

A jail cell for prisoners who are violent

is a slang term for this kind of punitive or isolating cell
chokey
vscooler
  • Archaic
1 9.9

A prison where people are kept as punishment for a crime

is slang that refers to one punitive cell rather than the whole prison

Compounds

wine cooler
5 3.0

A container filled with ice that keeps a wine bottle cold

water cooler
  • Informal
4 2.8

A place in an office where people talk informally

water cooler
3 2.1

A machine that cools and gives drinking water

evaporative cooler
  • Specialized
5.3

A machine that uses water to cool air in hot, dry places

Surface Forms

cooler singular
coolers plural

Morphology

cooler = cool (semi-transparent) = cool + er

Slang meaning 'a jail cell' is a metaphorical extension of 'cool' (to calm down or be cooled off) and is idiomatic; learners may not reliably infer this sense from the parts.

Etymology

The slang cooler for a prison cell comes from the idea of cool ('to cool down') and the phrase 'to cool off', and a helpful way to remember it is to think of a place someone is sent to calm down or be punished. That's why cooler can mean a jail cell or solitary confinement.