What does chokey mean?
Chokey is an informal British noun meaning a prison or jail. The word entered English during the period of British rule in India, borrowed ultimately from Hindi 'chauki', which denoted a police post or lock-up; it was adopted by soldiers and colonial administrators and eventually made its way into everyday British slang. It appears frequently in twentieth-century British fiction and memoirs, often with a wry or comic flavour — characters are said to be 'in chokey' or to have been hauled off to the local chokey rather than to any formal institution. Because it belongs to casual register, it suits dialogue, humour, and historical writing far better than official or legal prose. For readers of classic British literature, recognising 'chokey' is a small but useful key to a whole vocabulary of informal justice-related slang that also includes terms like 'clink' and 'nick'.
nounA prison or lock-up; a jail. The term is chiefly British slang.
- A prison or jail (chiefly British slang).
"The magistrate sent him to the chokey overnight until his trial."
"He spent a week in the chokey for unpaid fines before anyone thought to check on him."
"In the old novels the villain always ends up doing time in some grim provincial chokey."
Usually used in the singular ('the chokey'); the plural is rare.
"The county had two chokeys back then, one for men and one for women."
British slang for prison comes straight from Hindi — 'chokey' traces back to 'chauki', a police lock-up in colonial India.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of chokey
Chokey derives from Hindi 'chauki' (चौकी), meaning a watchpost, police station, or lock-up, which the British encountered during their administration of India in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The word was anglicised in both form and sense, coming to denote a prison cell or jail in British military and civilian slang. A related borrowing is 'chowkidar', from the same Hindi root, meaning a watchman or guard. The term remains chiefly associated with British English.
How chokey is actually used
Informal and somewhat dated British slang, common in mid-twentieth-century fiction and colloquial speech. It carries a breezy or comic tone rather than a serious one, so it would sound out of place in formal writing about criminal justice.
Easily confused with chokey
'Chalky' is an adjective describing something covered in or like chalk, whereas 'chokey' is a noun meaning a British slang term for a prison.
'Choke' is a verb meaning to obstruct the throat or breathing, while 'chokey' is a noun referring to a jail.