the pen
Slang for prison
The pen is a common way of referring to prison or jail, short for penitentiary: He did five years in the pen.
The expression treats confinement as the defining feature—prisoners are penned in like animals.
The usage is informal and appears frequently in crime fiction and casual speech about incarceration.
- inkWriting fluid
- ink wellContainer for writing fluid
- quillFeather used for writing
- paperPressed pulp for writing
- writingRecorded language on surface
nib · fountain · ballpoint · felt tip · scribble · author · enclosure · cage · pigpen · livestock · feather · prison · penitentiary · jail · cell · write · notebook · essay
- metonymsWall Street, Hollywood, the Kremlin, Capitol Hill, Downing Street
- prisonsprison, inmates, cells, prisons, prisoner
- Prison Memoirsprison memoirs, prison letters, doing time, behind bars, hard time
incarceration vs freedom
the penfreedom
Absence of constraint
liberty · the wild · free range · civilian life · release