sweatbox

English

Etymology

sweat +‎ box

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

sweatbox (plural sweatboxes)

1. Any box or boxlike structure used to induce sweating, such as of hides or tobacco
   • 2009 January 31, Karen Collier, “Posties buckle in scorching heat”, in Herald Sun:

     Australia Post has been accused of endangering staff with "sweatbox" uniforms and restricting earlier starts to save money.

2. (US, slang) A jail cell.
3. (UK, slang) A compartment in a police van to hold a prisoner being transported.
   • 2013, Colin Blaney, Hotshot: The Story of a Little Red Devil:

     They shoved me in the back of a police van and started driving to the cop shop. I was sitting in the sweatbox, wondering how the Dibble had got onto me so quickly, when I heard a voice from another section of the van say, 'Are you P from Macclesfield?'

   • 2018, Kerry Barnes, Deceit:

     […] she was finally hustled into a sweatbox, as prisoners and prison staff called it, and was off to meet her new home for the foreseeable future.

4. A small overheated cell or room used for solitary confinement or torture.
   • 2019, Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys, Fleet, page 143:

     In the summer of 1945, one young boy died of heart failure while locked in a sweatbox, a popular corrective at that time.

   • 2023, “A Drone Opting Out of the Hive”, performed by Code Orange:

     Don't step in the wrong spot
     You will gеt caught
     When you step in the swеatbox
     They'll make you talk

5. (slang) A small nightclub packed to capacity where people get hot and sweaty.
6. (animation) The room where a scene is reviewed.
7. (animation) The review process that takes place in a sweat box.