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death chamber

death chamber

4 9.1
A sealed room for killing people by releasing poison gas
  • noun
  • /dɛθ ˈtʃeɪmbər/
  • NSFW
translation icon : cámara de ejecución
  • He acknowledges that Penry may never receive a lethal injection administered in the death chamber at the prison system's Huntsville Unit.
  • death chamber at the prison
  • go to the death chamber
  • walk into the death chamber

And then we are escorted into the viewing area in the death chamber.

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Examples

  • Less than four minutes after the prisoner enters the death chamber, he's toast.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • First to go into the death chamber was Julius Rosenberg.

  • "As for the death chamber itself, it's pretty basic.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • We're in the death chamber.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • This is the death chamber, where the warden, a physician, and a minister will stand around the gurney.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • In Iraq, Saddam's death chambers would still be there (Saddam killed thousands per year).

    Blog text (6)
  • The condemned prisoner was taken to the death chamber to face execution by lethal gas.

  • Witnesses gathered outside the death chamber as the officials prepared for the execution.

  • Inside the death chamber, the atmosphere was tense as the time for execution approached.

Synonyms

gas chamber
vsdeath chamber
  • Offensive
45 7.8

A sealed room where people or animals die from poison gas

is identical in meaning but uses an alternative name for the same concept

How Deadly

death chamber
  • NSFW
4 9.1
holding cell
33 4.1

Surface Forms

death chamber singular

Morphology

death + chamber

The compound is largely compositional: a B1 learner who knows 'death' and 'chamber' will infer it denotes a room associated with death (likely a place where people die or are put to death). However, the precise institutional connotations — a sealed execution room, use of poison gas, or formal execution context — are specialized details not fully predictable from the parts, so the expression is not fully transparent.

Etymology

Death chamber comes from the literal image of a closed chamber, a small room into which poison gas is released to cause death. That simple picture — a closed room used for an 'execution' — is why the term means a room used to kill people or animals.