the big house
noun
US slang
: a building where people are kept as punishment for a crime : prison
He spent four years in the big house.
Examples of the big house in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Enslavers’ fortunes and lives depended on being able to control the able-bodied Black men and women who outnumbered them—20, 40, 60 Black bodies crammed into slave shacks, versus maybe a dozen white family members in the big house.
—
Eugene Robinson, The Atlantic, 3 Feb. 2026
There, shooting parties for the royals and their friends provide much of the entertainment after the Christmas presents and lunch at the big house are over.
—Simon Perry, PEOPLE, 27 Dec. 2025
Abdu Murray said his parents came from virtually nothing and worked their whole lives to get the big house and yard.
—Christina Hall, Freep.com, 9 Dec. 2025
De la Cruz, also in his 80s, retired from business and with five adult children dispersed around the country, sold the big house and moved to a Coconut Grove condo with a few favorite pieces and a panoramic view across Biscayne Bay of his former Island Paradise abode.
—Andres Viglucci, Miami Herald, 30 Nov. 2025
True to Season 1, there’s nary a bloodied corpse to be found here and the crime at hand won’t land anyone in the big house.
—Randy Myers, Mercury News, 20 Nov. 2025
Three separate small apartments were created within the big house for the children, Christopher, Elizabeth, and Leslie, then twenty-two, twenty, and sixteen.
—Joy Williams, Harpers Magazine, 24 Oct. 2025
Hulu is heading into — and then out of, presumably — the big house.
—Rick Porter, HollywoodReporter, 20 Oct. 2025
Some plantations celebrate the white slave-owning family and the upper-class furnishings of the big house with no mention of the atrocities that occurred there.
—Sarah Enelow-Snyder, Condé Nast Traveler, 10 May 2021
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Eugene Robinson, The Atlantic, 3 Feb. 2026
There, shooting parties for the royals and their friends provide much of the entertainment after the Christmas presents and lunch at the big house are over.
—Simon Perry, PEOPLE, 27 Dec. 2025
Abdu Murray said his parents came from virtually nothing and worked their whole lives to get the big house and yard.
—Christina Hall, Freep.com, 9 Dec. 2025
De la Cruz, also in his 80s, retired from business and with five adult children dispersed around the country, sold the big house and moved to a Coconut Grove condo with a few favorite pieces and a panoramic view across Biscayne Bay of his former Island Paradise abode.
—Andres Viglucci, Miami Herald, 30 Nov. 2025
True to Season 1, there’s nary a bloodied corpse to be found here and the crime at hand won’t land anyone in the big house.
—Randy Myers, Mercury News, 20 Nov. 2025
Three separate small apartments were created within the big house for the children, Christopher, Elizabeth, and Leslie, then twenty-two, twenty, and sixteen.
—Joy Williams, Harpers Magazine, 24 Oct. 2025
Hulu is heading into — and then out of, presumably — the big house.
—Rick Porter, HollywoodReporter, 20 Oct. 2025
Some plantations celebrate the white slave-owning family and the upper-class furnishings of the big house with no mention of the atrocities that occurred there.
—Sarah Enelow-Snyder, Condé Nast Traveler, 10 May 2021
Cite this Entry
“The big house.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/the%20big%20house. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.
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