Noun
padded cell (plural padded cells)
(idiomatic) A room in a mental hospital with padding on the walls, and often a cushioned floor, in order to prevent occupants from injuring themselves.
YOU COULD LOCK the Gasman in a padded cell with some dental floss and a bowl of Jell-O, and he'd find a way to make something to explode. James Patterson
There is but an inch of difference between a cushioned chamber and a padded cell. G. K. Chesterton
Every author, however modest, keeps a most outrageous vanity chained like a madman in the padded cell of his breast. Logan Pearsall Smith
If somebody had told me in the 1980s that Gerry Adams would shake hands with Ian Paisley or Peter Robinson I would have said put that man in a white suit and lock him up in a padded cell. Barry McGuigan
The art of the novelist is not unrelated to the illness of multiple personality disorder. It's a much milder form. But the better the book, the nearer to the padded cell you are. David Mitchell (author)
The tiny madman in his padded cell. Vladimir Nabokov