sin bin

plural sin bins · alternative sin-bin · alternative sinbin

1. hobbiesAn area where players are temporarily confined while suspended from play following an infringement of the rules of the game.

   2012: Phil Gifford, Rivals: Sports Greatest Battles, HarperCollins Australia, unnumbered page, At the play-the-ball Tamati and Dowling started jostling each other, then punching. The referee sent them to the sin bin.

   2 more examples

   Tommy Parker had propped Sporting World against a waterjug. He said “I see Max de Woppa spent three minutes in the sin bin.”

   1985, Nicholas Mosely, Accident, →ISBN, page 27

   Rob received a minor penalty, and as he served out his three minutes kicking back in the sin bin, Chinook′s sniper, Pierre Dion, shot from the point.

   2005, Rachel K. Gibson, The Trouble With Valentine's Day, page 46

   Synonyms: penalty box

2. figurativelyA place for transgressors, a limbo; a place of confinement or self-isolation after (or in order to avert) transgressions; a state of disgrace.

   2004, John Campbell, Margaret Thatcher, Volume 2: The Iron Lady, page 214, She was obliged to leave him in the sin-bin for four years.

   4 more examples

   I spent a week in the sin-bin for that one.

   1995, Paul Vautin, Turn It Up!, Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, page 116

   Punishment can be positive or negative, but both decrease the chances of the behaviour recurring. Positive punishment adds something unpleasant: yelling at the cat, for example. Negative punishment removes something pleasant: your company, for example, by putting the cat in the sin bin (see Chapter 9).

   2001, Kersti Seksel, Training Your Cat, page 33

   Where habitual offenders remain, we can be sure that any sin-bin will not be populated by members of any one racial group alone.

   2004, Richard Giles, Creating Uncommon Worship: Transforming the Liturgy of the Eucharist, page 88

   2004, Allison James, Adrian James, Constructing Childhood: Theory, Policy and Social Practice, Palgrave MacMillan, 130, As the pupils who would be the occupants of the sin-bins would not be counted as having been excluded from schools - being simply rehoused within them - the Government′s policy to cut the number of permanent school exclusions would remain intact, while the complaints made by teachers could also be addressed.

3. UKcolloquialeducationA referral unit or special class for frequent truants.
4. AustraliaUScolloquialSynonym of fuck truck: A panel van with a mattress in the back.

   1986 January, A Family Affair, Popular Mechanics, page 86, Unlike the full-size Sin Bins of the ′70s, the new family vans are cute, comfortable and carlike.

   2 more examples

   1972 September, What′s New: Rolling pad, Popular Science, page 70, There′s a shag rug on the floor, padding on walls and ceiling, and, for extra comfort, a 600-gallon water bed. The Sin Bin is made by Chinook Mobilodge.

   1978 March, Jim Elder, Camp/work conversion, Popular Mechanics, page 110, There is the shag-carpet “sin bin” with its fur upholstery, mahogany paneling, stained glass, color TV and chrome sidepipes.

   Synonyms: fuck truck

present singular third person sin bins · participle present sin binning · participle past sin binned · past sin binned · alternative sin-bin · alternative sinbin

1. usually in passive voicehobbiesto send a player off temporarily following an infringement of a rule in a game