Definition

Noun: 1. A building used for the detention of military prisoners: A guardhouse is a secure building, typically on a military base, where personnel who are under arrest or awaiting trial or punishment are held. 2. A building serving as a headquarters or post for guards: A guardhouse can also refer to the building where military police or security personnel are stationed, often located at the entrance to a base or installation.

Usage and Examples

• As a military detention facility:
  • The private was confined to the guardhouse for being absent without leave.
  • The base's guardhouse has several cells for holding detainees.
• As a guard post or headquarters:
  • All visitors must check in at the main guardhouse before entering the installation.
  • The military police on duty reported to the guardhouse at the start of their shift.

Advanced Usage

• The term is almost exclusively used in a military or paramilitary context. A civilian jail or police station would not typically be called a guardhouse.
• It can be used metaphorically to imply strict confinement or discipline, though this is less common.
  • His overprotective parents turned the house into a virtual guardhouse.

Variants and Related Words

• Guardroom (noun): A room, rather than a separate building, used for the same purposes as a guardhouse; often used interchangeably but may imply a smaller facility.
• Brig (noun): A naval term for a prison on a ship or at a naval base, similar in function to a guardhouse.
• Stockade (noun): A military prison, often an enclosed area or a more permanent facility than a guardhouse.

Synonyms

• Military prison
• Detention facility (military context)
• Guard post (when referring to the headquarters function)
• Lockup

Antonyms

• Freedom
• Liberty

Noun

1. a military facility that serves as the headquarters for military police and in which military prisoners can be detained