holding cell
33
4.1
- noun
- /ˈhoʊldɪŋ sɛl/
:
celda de detención
- After being arrested, he waited anxiously in the holding cell for his court hearing.
- a courthouse holding cell
- prisoners in a holding cell
- back to a holding cell
Why is the door to the holding cell so flimsy?
- Why is the door to the holding cell so flimsy?
- Sniff of dogs, wipe them down, strip search all that and go through to next holding cell.
- So I'm sitting in the holding cell this on a Sunday.
- So I'm in the holding cell and the first first I get I get questioned blah blah blah, blah blah.
Examples
-
Every day my marshals take me down to the holding cell.
-
We put her in a holding cell, where she'll probably be all night.
-
I, I understand that we got put in a holding cell, expected to be there a couple of hours.
-
- You want him back in the holding cell?
-
Is there a holding cell in there?
-
Take this guy down to the holding cell.
-
Let's get her down to the holding cell at the station.
-
Every day I waited outside the double doors for the deputies to bring him in from the holding cell.
Fiction book (1992) -
Take Mr. Fleck to his holding cell!
-
The agent flips the newspaper into the holding cell and walks away.
Fiction book (1998)
Synonyms
549
5.6
A small room in a prison or police station where a prisoner is held
43
1.5
A small room in a prison where guards keep prisoners
40
5.5
A small room in a police station where police keep people temporarily
2
4.4
A large room in a jail or police station where officers keep several people for a short time
Antonyms
How Secure
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'hold' (to restrain or keep) with 'cell' (a small locked room): it denotes a cell used for holding people temporarily. The gerundial modifier 'holding' signals the cell's function and this compositional pattern is common across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer the meaning.
Etymology
Holding cell comes from the simple words holding, meaning to keep someone, and cell, meaning a small locked room. Picture a small room that holds people for a short time, so the phrase means 'a secure room where people are kept temporarily'.