Meaning & use
Compter
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A small prison, historically attached to a sheriff's or magistrate's court, used to hold debtors and minor offenders.
See it in a sentence
In Elizabethan London, debtors who could not pay their creditors were often sent to the compter.
Records show the Poultry Compter held prisoners until the mid-1800s.
A note on using this word
An archaic English term, also spelled 'counter,' now found mainly in historical accounts of London's judicial system.
Words with a similar meaning
debtors' prison
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