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
The result -- for Mayan, at least -- was a three-year odyssey through various ultra-Orthodox reformatories and foster families.
From Salon ● Feb. 18, 2010
Our Austrian prisons, especially those in which the cell system has not been introduced, are simply houses of detention, not penitentiaries, still less reformatories.
