Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US naut.) a prison; a police station, also attrib.

1841		Flash (NY) 26 Sept. n.p.: The prosecuting attorney will be sent off to the brig for two days, for contempt of court.
1850		(con. 1843) Melville White-Jacket (1990) 56: After their examination they were ordered into the ‘brig’, a jail-house between two guns on the main-deck, where prisoners are kept.
1875		F.H. Sheppard Love Afloat 180: So he’s in the brig.
1899		J. Bowe With the 13th Minnesota in the Philippines 25 Aug. 173: The Officers kept trying to make the discharged soldiers [...] drill and do fatigue duty, and they absolutely refused and [...] were marched to the Brig, (calaboose).
1917		St Helens Mist (OR) 11 May5/3: Pie wagon — The brig (prison).
1920		T.H. Kelly What Outfit, Buddy? 55: When we got to the brig we found practically the whole outfit lined up there.
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 36: Brig, In The Dutch: Placed in irons. Under arrest.
1927		W. Edge Main Stem 41: You guys don’t seem ter give a damn if yer in de brig or not.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 37: brig.–A police station. Originally, on a U.S. man-of-war, the place of confinement for general prisoners; taken by the Army and Marine Corps to designate the guard house [...] then adopted by the tramp to its present usage.
1947		N. Algren Neon Wilderness (1986) 226: He must remain forever on the outside of everything except the nearest brig.
1953		Mad mag. June–July 22: Throw him in the brig and report for your next assignment.
1957		‘Weldon Hill’ Onionhead (1958) 77: ‘You gonna draw some brig time for hittin’ me, boot’.
1958		(con. 1950) E. Frankel Band of Brothers 61: I was in Norfolk [...] doin’ duty at the brig in Portsmouth.
1965		L. Bruce How to Talk Dirty 21: By the time they were processed, it was six months in the brig.
1973		‘Gunboat’ Smith in Heller In This Corner (1974) 32: I’m in the navy now, and I wind up in the brig. I did something all wrong.
1984		(con. 1964–73) W. Terry Bloods (1985) 5: When I got out of the brig, they put me in recon.
1993		R. Shell Iced 202: My military career lasted twenty-one days. Eleven of those I spent in the brig.
2000		P. Roth Human Stain 183: His fear of the Shore Patrol, and of the court-martial, and of the brig.
2018		T. Pluck ‘Hot Rod Heart’ in Life During Wartime 120: ‘PFC Pendleton spent the war in the brig’.
2020		D. Whish-Wilson Shore Leave 26: ‘Got the brig ready?’ ‘I’m afraid so. I had some repeat offenders clean it yesterday’.

2. (US Und.) a solitary confinement cell.

1931–4		D. Clemmer Prison Community (1940) 330/2: brig, n. A solitary cell in prison.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 291: The deluxe brig we now call the blank chamber.