Meanings
borstal1
plural borstals · alternative bostal
- UKA way up a hill in the South Downs.
- historicalAny of the prisons set up in Britain for delinquent boys from 1895 to 1983.
Synonyms: reformatory
- IrelandUKAny institution which provides education to young offenders.
You have juvenile courts. Do you have borstal institutions for juveniles?
2004, August 3, Speaker of the Kenyan National Assembly, Kenya National Assembly Official Record, Hansard, page 31261 more example
Seven years ago, I was sent to borstal. Slithering around in the societal sludge, I was forced to admit I'd made a huge mistake – committing robbery.
2011 November 7, Paris Lees, “My Transsexual Summer: a new view of gender”, in The Guardian
Borstal2
Synonyms & antonyms
nounAny of the prisons set up in Britain for delinquent boys from 1895 to 1983.
Origin
- Old Englishbeorh“a hill”
- Middle English*borstile
- Englishborstal
Inherited from Middle English *borstile, *borghstile, from Old English beorh (“a hill”) + stigel (“a stile”). The institutions are named after Borstal Prison in Borstal, Rochester, Kent, England.
More words from Middle English, Old English
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
borstal. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/borstal
“borstal.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/borstal. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “borstal,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/borstal.
Source: borstal on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.