padded cell
Noun
Meaning
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.
Synonyms
Examples
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.
There is but an inch of difference between a cushioned chamber and a padded cell.
Every author, however modest, keeps a most outrageous vanity chained like a madman in the padded cell of his breast.
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.
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.
The tiny madman in his padded cell.