reform school
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of reform school
An Americanism dating back to 1855–60
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The actor stars alongside Tracey Ullman and Emily Watson in a film that follows the weary employees and difficult students of an English reform school.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2025
Hundreds of boys, many with troubled backgrounds, were sent to the reform school on the border of Worcestershire and Gloucestershire by local authorities across England.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2025
Set in the 1960s, “Nickel Boys” is based on the real-life events of Dozier School, a Florida reform school called Nickel Academy in the book.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 25, 2024
Keep in mind I had worked in a reform school for girls!
From Slate ● Apr. 4, 2024
The average age in our platoon, I’d guess, was nineteen or twenty, and as a consequence things often took on a curiously playful atmosphere, like a sporting event at some exotic reform school.
From "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
