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  

/ rɪˈfɔːmətərɪ, -trɪ /

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

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Etymology

Origin of reformatory

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

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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

He ended up getting sent to a borstal, a reformatory for young offenders.

From Salon ● Feb. 20, 2023

He became involved with University Beyond Bars shortly after he arrived at the reformatory in 2010.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 6, 2022

He was in a reformatory for six months.

From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy

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

From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026

In his early attempts to improve the reformatories, Dr. Miller instituted new rules, including one requiring any authority who placed a youngster in isolation to remain with him or her until the confinement ended.

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

Here are homes for the aged and weak, hospitals and schools for the defective, almshouses for the indigent, and reformatories for the wayward.

From History of Human Society by Frank W. (Frank Wilson) Blackmar

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