Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A two-masted sailing vessel, square-rigged on both masts.
  • noun A jail or prison on board a US Navy or Coast Guard vessel.
  • noun A jail or guardhouse, especially on the premises of a US military installation.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An abbreviation of Brigade; Brigadier.
  • noun A vessel with two masts square-rigged, nearly like a ship's mainmast and foremast.
  • noun The place on board a man-of-war where prisoners are confined.
  • noun A bridge.
  • noun A utensil used in breweries and in dairies to set the strainer on.
  • noun A kind of iron set over a fire.
  • noun A ledge of rocks running out into the sea.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Scot. A bridge.
  • noun (Nav.) On a United States man-of-war, the prison or place of confinement for offenders.
  • noun (Naut.) A two-masted, square-rigged vessel.
  • noun a two-masted vessel square-rigged forward and schooner-rigged aft. See Illustration in Appendix.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A Scottish variation of bridge
  • noun Brigadier.
  • noun nautical A two-masted vessel, square-rigged on both foremast and mainmast
  • noun US A jail or guardhouse, especially in a naval military prison or jail on a ship, navy base, or (in fiction) spacecraft.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun two-masted sailing vessel square-rigged on both masts
  • noun a penal institution (especially on board a ship)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Short for brigantine. Senses 2 and 3, from the use of ships as prisons.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Shortening of brigadier

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Abbreviated from brigantine, from Italian brigantino; in sense “jail”, from the use of such ships as prisons.

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Examples

  • The talking point that the military cannot keep the prisoners securely in such facilities as Fort Leavenworth or the Charleston brig is simply laughable.

    Balkinization 2007

  • The talking point that the military cannot keep the prisoners securely in such facilities as Fort Leavenworth or the Charleston brig is simply laughable.

    Balkinization 2007

  • The talking point that the military cannot keep the prisoners securely in such facilities as Fort Leavenworth or the Charleston brig is simply laughable.

    Balkinization 2007

  • The talking point that the military cannot keep the prisoners securely in such facilities as Fort Leavenworth or the Charleston brig is simply laughable.

    Balkinization 2007

  • The talking point that the military cannot keep the prisoners securely in such facilities as Fort Leavenworth or the Charleston brig is simply laughable.

    Balkinization 2007

  • The talking point that the military cannot keep the prisoners securely in such facilities as Fort Leavenworth or the Charleston brig is simply laughable.

    Balkinization 2007

  • The talking point that the military cannot keep the prisoners securely in such facilities as Fort Leavenworth or the Charleston brig is simply laughable.

    Balkinization 2007

  • The talking point that the military cannot keep the prisoners securely in such facilities as Fort Leavenworth or the Charleston brig is simply laughable.

    Balkinization 2007

  • The talking point that the military cannot keep the prisoners securely in such facilities as Fort Leavenworth or the Charleston brig is simply laughable.

    Balkinization 2007

  • The talking point that the military cannot keep the prisoners securely in such facilities as Fort Leavenworth or the Charleston brig is simply laughable.

    Balkinization 2007

Comments

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  • Originally brigantine

    March 7, 2007

  • She peered, one eyebrow cocked. "You're young but not too young. You're good-looking. Your voice is commanding and you have no reluctance about brigging me like this. You're exactly what a twerp fan would look like, sound like, act like. Okay; are you satisfied?"

    - P.K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said.

    March 26, 2012