reformatory
adjective
serving or designed to reform: reformatory punishments.
reformatories
-
pluralof reformatory.plural
The grammatical form denoting more than one person, place, thing, or idea.
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.
As a teen, Clayton-Thomas lived on the streets and passed through a series of jails and reformatories.
From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026
Dr. Miller, a psychiatric social worker who had once considered joining the Catholic priesthood, set out in his position as commissioner of Massachusetts’s youth services department to fix the 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 oldest and most celebrated of these reformatories, that founded at Elmira by Brockway, owed its inspiration to my father's book Criminal Man and is the first reformatory that has been instituted on similar principles.
From Criminal Man According to the Classification of Cesare Lombroso by Gina Lombroso
