PENITENTIARY • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Penitentiary

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/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."

See images of 'Penitentiary'

Etymology of 'Penitentiary'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Penitentiary" Quotes from Famous Books

... back into his chair, got the confusion quieted, and with muttered threats of the penitentiary for him and everybody concerned in the affair, they got back to business again with the desperate haste of men working against time. And ...

— Stories of Achievement, Volume III (of 6) - Orators and Reformers • Various

... ablest lawyer a sister State can boast. Mills is a newspaper man, and is just now editing a Major General down South. Singlingson, the sweet-faced boy whose face was always washed and who was never rude, he is in the penitentiary for putting his uncle's autograph to a financial document. Hawkins, the clergyman's son, is an actor; and Williamson, the good little boy who divided his bread and butter with the beggar-man, is a ...

— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 6 • Various

... life; a very creditable averment, as the work, with slight modifications in each individual case, would prove a faithful portraiture of the early training and subsequent career of nine-tenths of the victims of the gallows, and of the penitentiary.—Mirror, ...

— Autographs for Freedom, Volume 2 (of 2) (1854) • Various

... employees returned to work. By the close of July, nearly a thousand men were at work at Homestead. On July 23d Mr. Frick was shot in his office by Alexander Berkman, an anarchist, who was not, and never had been, an employee. The chairman recovered from his wounds and his assailant was sent to the penitentiary. ...

— A Short History of Pittsburgh • Samuel Harden Church

... St.-Quentin in France substantially echoes another voice from another St. Quentin in California—the seat of the State Penitentiary in that young and active and opulent American commonwealth. In California the plan of giving instruction in morality, independently of religion, has been tried much longer than in France, and certainly in circumstances ...

— France and the Republic - A Record of Things Seen and Learned in the French Provinces - During the 'Centennial' Year 1889 • William Henry Hurlbert

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