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Penitentiary   /pˌɛnɪtˈɛntʃəri/   Listen
noun
Penitentiary  n.  (pl. penitentiaries)  
1.
One who prescribes the rules and measures of penance. (Obs.)
2.
One who does penance. (Obs.)
3.
A small building in a monastery where penitents confessed.
4.
That part of a church to which penitents were admitted.
5.
(R. C. Ch.)
(a)
An office of the papal court which examines cases of conscience, confession, absolution from vows, etc., and delivers decisions, dispensations, etc. Its chief is a cardinal, called the Grand Penitentiary, appointed by the pope.
(b)
An officer in some dioceses since A. D. 1215, vested with power from the bishop to absolve in cases reserved to him.
6.
A house of correction, in which offenders are confined for punishment, discipline, and reformation, and in which they are generally compelled to labor; a prison; a jail. Colloquially often shortened to pen.



adjective
Penitentiary  adj.  
1.
Relating to penance, or to the rules and measures of penance. "A penitentiary tax."
2.
Expressive of penitence; as, a penitentiary letter.
3.
Used for punishment, discipline, and reformation. "Penitentiary houses."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Penitentiary" Quotes from Famous Books



... than 700 buildings were feeding a conflagration at once terrible and magnificent to behold, and no one was endeavoring to stay its advance. The negroes were intoxicated with joy, and the whites with whiskey; the convicts from the penitentiary had broken loose; a mob was breaking into houses and stores and was pillaging madly. Erelong the Fifth Massachusetts Cavalry, a negro regiment under Colonel C.F. Adams, Jr., paraded through the streets, and then the Southern whites hid themselves within doors ...
— Abraham Lincoln, Vol. II • John T. Morse

... another's land, but it is not criminal; the trespasser is liable to a civil suit for damages, but not to indictment, fine, or imprisonment. A felonious act is a criminal act of an aggravated kind, which is punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary or by death. A flagitious crime is one that brings public odium. Vicious refers to the indulgence of evil appetites, habits, or passions; vicious acts are not necessarily criminal, or even illegal; we speak of a vicious horse. That which is iniquitous, i. e., contrary ...
— English Synonyms and Antonyms - With Notes on the Correct Use of Prepositions • James Champlin Fernald

... still, I'd like to know? You teach me to know Fielitz! He needn't be putting on's far as I know. He's got another trade exceptin' just repairin' shoes. When a man's been twice in the penitentiary.... ...
— The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann - Volume I • Gerhart Hauptmann

... he is raining blows on important men, who are not accustomed to being treated with disrespect—although he is charging them with crimes, and hopes, I should say, to drive them out of the country or into the penitentiary, he speaks of some of them with the greatest kindness, thoroughly understanding ...
— Frenzied Finance - Vol. 1: The Crime of Amalgamated • Thomas W. Lawson

... only safety, then, is in the aggregate fidelity to personal rectitude, which may lessen the chances of representative dishonesty, or, at the worst, constitute a public opinion that shall make the whole country a penitentiary for such treason, and turn the price of public honor to fairy-money, whose withered leaves but mock the possessor with the futile memory of self-degradation. Let every man remember, that, though he may be a nothing in himself, yet every cipher gains the power of multiplying ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 6, April, 1858 • Various


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