drunk tank

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drunk tank (plural drunk tanks)

1. (slang) A cell where people who have been arrested for public drunkenness are detained until they are sober.
   • 1962, Charles Bukowski, “letter”, in On Writing, Canongate, published 2016, page 57:

     [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 […] .

   • 1987, Shane MacGowan, Jem Finer (lyrics and music), “Fairytale of New York”, in If I Should Fall from Grace with God, performed by The Pogues ft. Kirsty MacColl:

     It was Christmas Eve, babe, in the drunk tank / An old man said to me, “Won't see another one”