reformatory
4
8.3
- noun
- /ˌriːfɔːrˈmætəri/
:
reformatorio
- Curly's in the reformatory for the next six months.
- State Reformatory
Later on, instead of prisons, they got called penitentiaries, and then some of them got called reformatories.
- Later on, instead of prisons, they got called penitentiaries, and then some of them got called reformatories.
Examples
-
Send him to the reformatory.
-
I spent a year in reformatory.
-
This is a reformatory, Not a hotel.
-
By the time she was fourteen, she found herself in a Catholic girls' reformatory.
Fiction book (1994) -
Foster homes would no longer take me, and I was sent to the Boys' Reformatory of Baton.
-
Twenty years later, my foster brother was convicted of a felony and sentenced to the Minnesota State Reformatory at Saint Cloud.
Fiction book (1990) -
But you didn't know that as Mary Keaton she served a term in the reformatory for grand larceny, did you?
-
The call you're about to receive originates from an inmate at the Oklahoma State Reformatory.
-
The boys played dumb at first, but confessed when the policemen told them, "The longer it takes you to come clean, the longer you'll be in the reformatory."
Fiction book (1996) -
After repeatedly getting into trouble, the judge decided to send him to a reformatory for rehabilitation.
Synonyms
15
6.3
A locked place where young people who break the law are kept
10
6.8
A school where young people who break the law learn rules and work skills
10
4.2
A building like a prison where people are kept as punishment and given training
2
4.9
A place where people who broke the law are kept as punishment or while they wait for trial
1
6.5
A place where young people who have broken the law stay temporarily under court supervision
1
9.9
A former place in Britain for young people too young for prison who committed crimes
1
4.1
A place where people found guilty of crimes are kept and given help to change their behaviour
1
6.4
A place that holds young people who broke the law and helps them learn better behavior
A place where people who broke the law stay to learn better behaviour and get help
A place where people are kept by the government and forced to change their beliefs or behavior
How Punitive
Surface Forms
Morphology
reformatory = reformatory (semi-transparent) = reform + atory
The noun comes from the adjective 'reformatory' and refers by ellipsis to a place intended to reform offenders, but the specific institutional meaning is specialized.
Etymology
Reformatory comes from the parts re- 'again' and form 'shape', like the verb reform, and was used for a place that tries to 'shape' young people into better behaviour. So a reformatory is a school or place for young offenders where the aim is to correct and teach them to behave better.