reformatory
Americanadjective
noun
-
reformatories
plural
noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Mariona's memory of telling this story to the youngsters in her family is blurred, she believes as a result of the psychiatric "treatment" she was forced to undergo at the reformatory.
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
What happened after the reformatory closure illuminates the fragility of prison education.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 6, 2022
Impertinence to a teacher was almost a reformatory offense in Brooklyn.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
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
But, like Mayan, he was caught and spent time in reformatories.
From Salon ● Feb. 18, 2010
In America there is a decided tendency to substitute State reformatories for prisons, especially in the case of the young.
From A Plea for the Criminal Being a reply to Dr. Chapple's work: 'The Fertility of the Unfit', and an Attempt to explain the leading principles of Criminological and Reformatory Science by James Leslie Allan Kayll
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.
