North American slang, originating in Chinook Jargon (the Pacific Northwest trade pidgin), for a prison or jail.
North American slang, originating in Chinook Jargon (the Pacific Northwest trade pidgin), for a prison or jail. 'Skookum' meant strong or powerful in Chinook Jargon, so a skookum house was a strong house — a building you couldn't easily escape from. The term was widely used in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia.
He spent three nights in the skookum-house before anyone came to post bail.
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(North America, slang) A prison or jail.
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