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penitentiaries
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Penitentiaries

Penitentiary \Pen`i*ten"tia*ry\, n.; pl. Penitentiaries. [Cf. F. p['e]nitencier. See Penitent.]

  1. One who prescribes the rules and measures of penance. [Obs.]
    --Bacon.

  2. One who does penance. [Obs.]
    --Hammond.

  3. A small building in a monastery where penitents confessed.
    --Shpiley.

  4. That part of a church to which penitents were admitted.
    --Shipley.

  5. (R. C. Ch.)

    1. 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.

    2. 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.

Wiktionary
penitentiaries

n. (plural of penitentiary English)

Usage examples of "penitentiaries".

The penitentiaries of Britain were full of people who would never have believed it.

Of Branson's permanent nucleus of eighteen men, nine of them had spent various times in various penitentiaries up and down the country reflecting upon the vagaries of fortune.

There was a metal detector device, somewhat like those used in penitentiaries to learn whether the inmates are carrying weapons, concealed in the door frame.

I gave him some background on the serial killer study we’d done in the FBI, how we’d gone around to the penitentiaries and learned from the actual killers what was going on in their minds.