drunk tank
noun1
Slang A cell where people who have been arrested for public drunkenness are detained until they are sober.
- [I]f you're honest enough you might end up in the drunk-tank 15 or 20 times and lose a few jobs and a wife or 2 or maybe slug somebody in the streets and sleep on a park bench now and then […].1962, Charles Bukowski, “letter”, in On Writing, Canongate, published 2016, page 57:
- It was Christmas Eve, babe, in the drunk tank / An old man said to me, “Won't see another one”1987, Shane MacGowan, Jem Finer, “Fairytale of New York”, in If I Should Fall from Grace with God, performed by The Pogues ft. Kirsty MacColl: