penitentiary

• POS: Adjective, Noun
• HYPHEN: pen=i=ten=tia=ry

CIDE DICTIONARY

penitentiary, a. [Cf. F. pénitentiaire.].

•  Relating to penance, or to the rules and measures of penance.  Abp. Bramhall.  [1913 Webster]
•  Expressive of penitence; as, a penitentiary letter.  [1913 Webster]
•  Used for punishment, discipline, and reformation.  Blackstone.  [1913 Webster]

penitentiary, n. [Cf. F. pénitencier. See Penitent.].

•  One who prescribes the rules and measures of penance.  Bacon.  [1913 Webster]
•  One who does penance.  Hammond.  [1913 Webster]
•  A small building in a monastery where penitents confessed.  Shpiley.  [1913 Webster]
•  That part of a church to which penitents were admitted.  Shipley.  [1913 Webster]
•  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.  [1913 Webster]
•  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.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

penitentiary, n. & adj.
--n. (pl. -ies)
1 US a reformatory prison.
2 an office in the papal court deciding questions of penance, dispensations, etc.
--adj.
1 of or concerning penance.
2 of or concerning reformatory treatment.
3 US (of an offence) making a culprit liable to a prison sentence.

Idiom

Grand Penitentiary a cardinal presiding over the penitentiary.

Etymology

ME f. med.L paenitentiarius (adj. & n.) (as PENITENT)

THESAURUS

penitentiary

Grand Penitentiary, Holy Father, POW camp, abuna, antipope, archbishop, archdeacon, archpriest, bail, bastille, bishop, bishop coadjutor, black hole, borstal, borstal institution, bridewell, brig, can, canon, cardinal, cardinal bishop, cardinal deacon, cardinal priest, cassock, cell, chaplain, coadjutor, concentration camp, condemned cell, confessor, cooler, coop, curate, cure, dean, death cell, death house, death row, detention camp, diocesan, ecclesiarch, exarch, father, father confessor, father in Christ, federal prison, forced-labor camp, gallach, gaol, guardhouse, hierarch, high priest, hoosegow, house of correction, house of detention, industrial school, internment camp, jail, jailhouse, keep, labor camp, lockup, maximum-security prison, metropolitan, minimum-security prison, oubliette, padre, papa, parish priest, patriarch, pen, penal colony, penal institution, penal settlement, pontiff, pope, prebendary, prelate, presbyter, priest, primate, prison, prison camp, prisonhouse, rector, reform school, reformatory, rural dean, spiritual director, spiritual father, sponging house, state prison, stockade, subdean, suffragan, the hole, tollbooth, training school, vicar

ROGET THESAURUS

penitentiary

Prison

N prison, prison house, jail, gaol, cage, coop, den, cell, stronghold, fortress, keep, donjon, dungeon, Bastille, oubliette, bridewell, house of correction, hulks, tollbooth, panopticon, penitentiary, guardroom, lockup, hold, round house, watch house, station house, sponging house, station, house of detention, black hole, pen, fold, pound, inclosure, isolation (exclusion), penal settlement, penal colony, bilboes, stocks, limbo, quod, calaboose, chauki, choky, thana, workhouse, Newgate, Fleet, Marshalsea, King's Bench, Queen's Bench, bond, bandage, irons, pinion, gyve, fetter, shackle, trammel, manacle, handcuff, straight jacket, strait jacket, strait-jacket, strait-waistcoat, hopples, vice, vise, yoke, collar, halter, harness, muzzle, gag, bit, brake, curb, snaffle, bridle, rein, reins, bearing rein, martingale, leading string, tether, picket, band, guy, chain, cord, cavesson, hackamore, headstall, jaquima, lines, ribbons, bolt, deadbolt, bar, lock, police lock, combination lock, padlock, rail, wall, stone wall, paling, palisade, fence, picket fence, barbed wire fence, Cyclone fence, stockade fence, chain-link fence, barrier, barricade, drag.

Clergy

N clergy, clericals, ministry, priesthood, presbytery, the cloth, the desk, clergyman, divine, ecclesiastic, churchman, priest, presbyter, hierophant, pastor, shepherd, minister, father, father in Christ, padre, abbe, cure, patriarch, reverend, black coat, confessor, dignitaries of the church, ecclesiarch, hierarch, ebdomarius, eminence, reverence, elder, primate, metropolitan, archbishop, bishop, prelate, diocesan, suffragan, dean, subdean, archdeacon, prebendary, canon, rural dean, rector, parson, vicar, perpetual curate, residentiary, beneficiary, incumbent, chaplain, curate, deacon, deaconess, preacher, reader, lecturer, capitular, missionary, propagandist, Jesuit, revivalist, field preacher, churchwarden, sidesman, clerk, precentor, choir, almoner, suisse, verger, beadle, sexton, sacristan, acolyth, acolothyst, acolyte, altar boy, chorister, Pope, Papa, pontiff, high priest, cardinal, ancient flamen, flamen, confessor, penitentiary, spiritual director, cenobite, conventual, abbot, prior, monk, friar, lay brother, beadsman, mendicant, pilgrim, palmer, canon regular, canon secular, Franciscan, Friars minor, Minorites, Observant, Capuchin, Dominican, Carmelite, Augustinian, Gilbertine, Austin Friars, Black Friars, White Friars, Gray Friars, Crossed Friars, Crutched Friars, Bonhomme, Carthusian, Benedictine, Cistercian, Trappist, Cluniac, Premonstatensian, Maturine, Templar, Hospitaler, Bernardine, Lorettine, pillarist, stylite, abbess, prioress, canoness, religieuse, nun, novice, postulant, prophet, priest, high priest, Levite, Rabbi, Rabbin, Rebbe, scribe, mullah, muezzin, ayatollah, ulema, imaum, imam, sheik, sufi, kahin, kassis, mufti, hadji, dervish, fakir, faquir, brahmin, guru, kaziaskier, poonghie, sanyasi, druid, bonze, santon, abdal, Lama, talapoin, caloyer, the Reverend, the very Reverend, the Right Reverend, ordained, in orders, called to the ministry.

Penitence

N penitence, contrition, compunction, repentance, remorse, regret, self-reproach, self-reproof, self-accusation, self-condemnation, self-humiliation, stings of conscience, pangs of conscience, qualms of conscience, prickings of conscience, twinge of conscience, twitch of conscience, touch of conscience, voice of conscience, compunctious visitings of nature, acknowledgment, confession, apology, recantation, penance, resipiscence, awakened conscience, deathbed repentance, locus paenitentiae, stool of repentance, cuttystool, penitent, repentant, Magdalen, prodigal son, a sadder and a wiser man, penitent, repenting, repentant, contrite, conscience- smitten, conscience-stricken, self-accusing, self-convicted, penitential, penitentiary, reclaimed, reborn, not hardened, unhardened, mea culpa, peccavi, erubuit, salva res est, Tu l'as voulu, Georges Dandin, and wet his grave with my repentant tears.