or choky, chokee, choker, subs. (common).—1. A prison. [Indian: from Hindī chaukī, a shed, station, or lock-up. In use from 1698 onwards and transferred to English slang early in the present century.] The Queen’s Bench prison has been called the QUEEN’S CHOKEY. For synonyms, see CAGE.
1836. M. SCOTT, The Cruise of the Midge (ed. 18), p. 107. Lord, but it’s CHOKEY!
1866. The London Miscellany. 3 March, p. 58, col. 1, ‘London Revelations.’ I’ve jist crept out o’ CHOKEY. This is the twenty-ninth time I’ve been took that way, and I’m jist gone twenty.
1877. W. H. THOMSON, Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ii. 131. Both were marched off to ‘CHOKEE,’ and I have no doubt got punished.
1877. BESANT and RICE, This Son of Vulcan, II., ch. vi., p. 223. Find out this stranger, and, by God, I’m a justice of the peace, and I’ll cool his heels in CHOKEE for a month.
1884. Daily News, 24 Sept., p. 3, col. 1. Wright … would get two or three days’ CHOKY (i.e., bread and water).
2. (prison).—A cell, specially a punishment cell. For synonyms, see CLINCH.
1889. Answers, 30 March, p. 280, col. 2. But I am reminded that I have not yet described that horrible institution known as the dark cell—CHOKEY, we convicts called it.
