Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A dungeon with a trapdoor in the ceiling as its only means of entrance or exit.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- 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.
- 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.
- To imprison in an oubliette.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- 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
- n. a dungeon with the only entrance or exit being a trap door in the ceiling
Etymologies
- French, from oublier, to forget, from Old French oblider, from Vulgar Latin *oblītāre, from Latin oblītus, past participle of oblīvīscī; see lei- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“Strenuously jamming their alleged principles into an oubliette is an exercise that apparently causes blindness, as well.”
“In French this sort of prison is called an oubliette.”
“The oubliette is a dirty place, and fuligin doesn't show bloodstains.”
The Shadow of the Torturer
“From the Stumptown Trade Review's article and podcast, I learned about Kenan Rubenstein's single-sheet "oubliette" comics.”
“First off, full marks for you for sneaking in the word "oubliette" into the conversation.”
“The "Sinking Fund Commission," is another "oubliette" into which money raised from the State sinks mysteriously.”
“And wait to be discovered, along with the hundreds of others waiting in a kind of publishing oubliette.”
msagara: A question about vanity press publications and bookstores
“This book should be of interest to readers fascinated but perplexed by the current financial crisis, as it is able to navigate the oubliette of Wall Street trading to create searing and intimate drama.”
Union Atlantic: Summary and book reviews of Union Atlantic by Adam Haslett.
“As I said elsewhere, I decorated the oubliette, put little red antlers on the rats and spiked her gruel with grappa.”
“This oubliette had at its bottom a haggard, young male face and therein a pair of eyes rimmed red and searching.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘oubliette’.
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Gene Wolfe
Please contribute your favorite words from any of Gene Wolfe’s books to this prize-winning list.
In case you come across words in this list which are too commonplace to fit in, please ...gallipot, roost, badelaire, oblesque, execration, dhole, amschaspand, arctother, chalcedony, penitence, asimi, autarch and 839 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Resonant words
conflagration, cascando, fianchetto, incarnadine, oubliette, colophon, hegemony, omertà, cavalier, scrivener, armistice, pastiche
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♗
euonym, eidolon, aurulent, sable-vested, aether, seraph, woodwose, je ne sais quoi, silver-tongued, schadenfreude, cri de coeur, mare's nest and 10 more...
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Slam Fodder
Those words that will inevitable end up in a Slam Poem
feel free to challenge me!:)bumptious, gamekeeper, slamily, burbuliatorius, cryptomnesia, paradox, pulchritudinous, mimetic, anhedonia, skelf, rampike, furlough and 84 more...
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Fun fancy French words
Fun fancy French words to wield, impress and sound pretentious with
raison d etre, garçonnière, recherché, bisous, soigne, apercu, decharne, outre, oubliette, soi disant, mot juste, louche and 4 more...
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fredrx's beautiful sounding list
two most beautiful words when put together
womb, philistine, poignant, wombastic, eschelon, macabre, precipitous, panache, misogynist, placebo, cacophony, aplomb and 43 more...
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asgerd's list
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