Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a prison.

1903		Orange Dly Trib. (TX) 26 Aug. 4/4: Sigor G. Fernatura [...] landed immediately thereafter in the hoosegow [...] and was first ordered to pay the disputed bill.
1908		B. Fisher A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 52: Recent photo of A. Mutt, who may be released from the hooze gow, that he may become associate counsel for [...] Cicero Mutt.
1911		G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 295: No thanks for th’ little lady savin’ th’ bunch of you from th’ ‘hoose-gow’.
1914		Tucumcari News & Times (NM) 24 Dec. 1/4: The city jail, otherwise known as the hoose-gow.
1924		D. Hammett ‘Zigzags of Treachery’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 120: A private detective is a double-crossing specialist who [...] counts that day lost in which he railroads no innocent to the hoosegow.
1933		‘Goat’ Laven Rough Stuff 110: Up steps a bunch of coppers and takes us down to the hoozegow (jail).
1939		H. Miller Tropic of Capricorn (1964) 275: They take Al to the hospital and the rest of us to the hoose-gow.
1943		G. Kerouac letter 3 May in Charters I (1995) 63: How’s my darling to-day, still in the ‘Hoose Gow’.
1951		W. Winchell On Broadway 2 Mar. [synd. col.] Erickson is in the hoosegow for being a gambler.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 804: hoosegow – A jail.
1975		(con. 1900s) G. Swarthout Shootist 119: I’ve got a kid in my hoosegow now – Jay Cobb [...] Gun crazy.
1981		J. Wambaugh Glitter Dome (1982) 110: Nobody was tossing her in the hoosegow for occasionally making a few bucks by looking into the future of the ladies of the neighborhood.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 98: The hit just ordered on the hooker in the hoosegow.
2004		H. Mastrini Frommer’s Prague 65: But once the bizarre allure of staying in Havel’s former hoosegow wears off, [etc.].
2017		Houston Herald (MO) 2 Nov. A007/2: Hoosegow [...] means ‘jail’.

2. any form of institution to which inmates are sent rather than volunteer for entrance.

1924		H.L. Wilson Professor How Could You! 148: Of course the poor fish (demented person) ought to be some good booby-hatch (hoosegow).
1936		Mencken Amer. Lang. (4th edn) 581: Special argots are also in use in various lesser sorts of hoosegow, e.g., reformatories and orphanages.

3. an outhouse, a privy.

1931		AS VII:122: Hoosegow [...] comfort station.
1968		in DARE.