crowbar, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

crowbar n.

[it ‘prises open’ the vagina]

(US) the penis.

c.1925

in P. Smith Letter from My Father (1978) 135: The old crow-bar was standing up quite rigid.

crowbar brigade (n.) [their breaking into houses with the help of a crowbar; the break-in was followed by the eviction of the tenants]

(Irish) the police; thus crowbar landlord, a landlord who enforces his powers through heavy-handed policemen.

1865		T. Mooney in Ware (1909) 99/2: I recommend my countrymen to shoot the crowbar landlord as we shoot robbers or rats, at night, or in the day, on the roadside or in the market-place.
1878		A.M. Sullivan in Ware (1909) 99/2: After a while the whole posse – sheriff, sub-sheriff, agent, bailiffs, and attendant policemen – came to be designated the ‘Crowbar Brigade’.

crowbar hotel (n.) (also crowbar palace) [var. on cross-bar hotel n. + ? ref. to the need for a SE crowbar to escape]

a prison.

1942		Common Ground 3 42/2: I sung in the coal towns in Virginia [...] the iron towns in Pennsylvania, including the crowbar hotel in Mifflintown.
1957		N.Y. Folklore Qly 13 26: The cop took the jack to the crowbar hotel. On Monday morning he got took before Scotchey Connors, the judge.
1963		News of the North (Yellowknife) 29 Aug. 2/1: Three months in Fort Smith's crowbar palace may have a most salutary effect on the young man.
1977		Liberty Bell 4 18: I am presently enroute to Sandstone Federal ‘Crowbar Hotel’ to serve 60 days for insulting [...] an IRS agent.
1987		B. Callahan Big Bk Amer. Irish Culture 231: Moran [...] served his master well, even to the point of doing five years in the Crowbar Hotel for a crime O’Banion masterminded.
1992		R. Kroetsch Puppeteer 35: ‘Jack Deemer ought to be in the crowbar hotel.’ ‘Or pushing up daisies’ .
2000		Toronto Sun 4 Mar. 🌐 This was an astonishing crime to every journalist in the land, since our whole livelihood consists of cozying up to sources. This scribbler would have been in the crowbar hotel eons ago if this principle was applied.
2002		‘Out of Court’ at Emplawyernet.com 🌐 A judge in Pierce County Washington was disciplined for telling defendants that they faced life imprisonment for minor violations. More specifically, he told defendants appearing over minor fines that they would spend their lives in ‘The Crowbar Hotel’. The judge claimed that the defendants knew he was joking.