Log in or Sign up
  1. oubliette love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A dungeon with a trapdoor in the ceiling as its only means of entrance or exit.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A secret dungeon with an opening only at the top for the admission of air, used for persons condemned to perpetual imprisonment or to perish secretly, such as exist in some old castles or other buildings.
  2. n. A secret pit, usually in the floor of a dungeon or a dark passage, into which a person could be precipitated and thus be destroyed unawares. Oubliettes of this form occur in medieval castles, though they were much less common than has been popularly believed.
  3. To imprison in an oubliette.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A dungeon with an opening only at the top, found in some old castles and other strongholds, into which persons condemned to perpetual imprisonment, or to perish secretly, were thrust, or lured to fall.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a dungeon with the only entrance or exit being a trap door in the ceiling

Etymologies

  1. Borrowing from French oubliette, from oublier ("to forget"). (Wiktionary)
  2. French, from oublier, to forget, from Old French oblider, from Vulgar Latin *oblītāre, from Latin oblītus, past participle of oblīvīscī. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

Show 10 more examples...

Log in or sign up to add your own related words.

hypernyms (1)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. dungeon

same context (10)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. colonne
  2. année
  1. sa¤jànàmã
  2. riety
  1. lue
  2. Roanoke
  1. honky
  2. backin
  1. continuelle
  2. metaphysique

reverse dictionary (1)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. oubliette

tags (5)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. french
  1. from French
  1. medieval
  1. castle
  1. vvccvvccv

Log in or sign up to add your own tag.

Wordmap

(beta)

Word visualization

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘oubliette’.

More lists containing ‘oubliette’

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • super-logos You guys slay me. The Oubliettes were a Michigan high school hockey team that won national honors in 1956, and was promptly forgotten. Aug 13, 2008

  • johnmperry -ette suggests this is a small one. A full-sized one ought to be an oublie? Jun 22, 2008

  • Prolagus Still at the top of the "most wordied". Go oubliettes go! Jun 20, 2008

  • rolig Curious how French can make the most horrific things sound adorable:

    The formidable Annette kept Jean-Pierre cloistered in her oubliette for several years until finally in a fit of pique she sent him to the abattoir. Jun 17, 2008

  • bard It's a place you put people... to forget about 'em!
    Hoggle was quite correct; from the French word oubliez which means 'to forget.' Oh how I do love that movie! Jun 17, 2008

  • harpsdesire Huh... I always thought oubliette meant chamber pot. *blush* May 1, 2008

  • plethora This word reminds me of Labyrinth:

    Hoggle: This is an oubliette, labyrinth's full of 'em.
    Sarah: Really. I didn't know that.
    Hoggle: Oh don't act so smart. You don't even know what an oubliette is.
    Sarah: Do you?
    Hoggle: Yes. It's a place you put people... to forget about 'em! Apr 14, 2008

  • pterodactyl Oh, I thought it was like a suffragette who fights for the right to forget.

    Hee hee hee! Now I'm picturing a street full of women wearing petticoats, waving blank signs, and swigging from bottles of nepenthe. Apr 13, 2008

  • sionnach As Sir Hosis took another swig of eau-de-vie, his pet kinkajou perched on his shoulder like a harbinger of doom, the xiphoid scar on his cheek throbbing as a reminder of previous battles, he cackled evilly: "Now that my brother is safely stashed in the oubliette, no need to wait for a quorum" and signed the order that consigned the prisoners to a painful death.


    (For an explanation of this potentially mystifying sentence, see this list:
    5 words ) Apr 12, 2008

  • Prolagus Oh, I thought it was like a suffragette who fights for the right to forget. Apr 12, 2008

  • abraxaszugzwang All the latest toughs, well, we have seen that stuff, and we have seen enough blood in dying coughs, which means that we have lost. We have lost, and if you’re crying to be tossed they’ll toss you down the oubliette with all the old things that you let yourself forget because you’d like to love a star who’d throw you down below the ground he thinks you are. Feb 12, 2007

Tweets

Looking for tweets for oubliette.

‘oubliette’ has been looked up 4259 times, loved by 23 people, added to 141 lists, commented on 12 times, and has a Scrabble score of 11.