reformatory

American  

adjective

1. serving or designed to reform: reformatory punishments.

   reformatory lectures;

   reformatory punishments.

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noun

reformatories plural

1. Also called reform school.  (no longer in official use) a penal institution for reforming young offenders, especially minors.

reformatory British  

/ -trɪ, rɪˈfɔːmətərɪ /

noun

1. Also called: reform school.  (formerly) a place of instruction where young offenders were sent for corrective training Compare approved school

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adjective

1. having the purpose or function of reforming

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• prereformatory
  adjective
• pseudoreformatory
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• reformatories
  plural

Etymology

Origin of reformatory

First recorded in 1580–90 reformatory for def. 1; in 1750–60 reformatory for def. 2; reform ( def. ) + -atory ( def. ).

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

reformatory reformatories

"They put me in a reformatory when I was 17."

From BBC ● Nov. 15, 2025

In the film about two teens in a reformatory school, the camera becomes the point-of-view of a couple of characters, while other characters look directly into the lens.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 17, 2024

One student received clemency and was released a few months after the reformatory closed.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 6, 2022

This reformatory housed youngsters who had been convicted of theft, truancy or ill-disciplined – the types of children whose parents didn't want to know, outcasts.

From Salon ● Sep. 30, 2022

A judge was going to determine whether the boy had to go to a reformatory home or could stay put, with relatives who didn’t particularly want him.

From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman

As a teen, Clayton-Thomas lived on the streets and passed through a series of jails and reformatories.

From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026

In 1972, in a controversial action that would bring sweeping changes to juvenile corrections across the United States, Dr. Miller began shutting down Massachusetts’s reformatories.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 15, 2015

In examining the state child-care system in Ireland, the series brought to light a Dickensian network of reformatories and residential schools for poor, neglected and abandoned children known as industrial schools.

From New York Times ● Jan. 12, 2012

But, like Mayan, he was caught and spent time in reformatories.

From Salon ● Feb. 18, 2010

The weighty reasons which call for separate courts and reformatories for juvenile offenders are equally valid in the case of female law-breakers, for whom special tribunals and legislation should be provided.

From Criminal Man According to the Classification of Cesare Lombroso by Lombroso, Gina