Reformatory

//ɹəˈfɔɹməˌtɔɹi// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A prison, especially one for juveniles; a reform school.

    "It was the nicest-looking property Elwood had ever seen—a real school, a good one, not the forbidding reformatory he’d conjured the last few weeks."

  2. 2
    correctional institution for the detention and discipline and training of young or first offenders wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Of, pertaining to, or conducive to reform; reformative.

    "Other reformatory schools might not strike that balance between reform and education."

Adjective
  1. 1
    tending to reform wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
borstalreform schoolapproved schoolbastilleblack holeborstal

Example

More examples

"Other reformatory schools might not strike that balance between reform and education."

Related phrases

reform school

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.