The Collaborative International Dictionary
Refectory \Re*fec"to*ry\ (-[-o]*r[y^]), n.; pl.; Refectories (-r?z). [ LL. refectorium: cf. F. r['e]fectoire. See Refection.] A room for refreshment; originally, a dining hall in monasteries or convents.
Note: Sometimes pronounced r[e^]f"[e^]k*t[-o]*r[y^], especially when signifying the eating room in monasteries.
Wiktionary
n. (plural of refectory English)
Usage examples of "refectories".
With its dormitories, refectories, theaters, meeting rooms, and so on, it was not very different from an Odonian community, except that it was very old, was exclusively male, was incredibly luxurious, and was not organized federatively but hierarchically, from the top down.
They organized the refectories more stringently, so that food would not be wasted.
But from the inside I know only your not-private life—meeting rooms, refectories, laboratories—"
In the refectories people would turn away and talk as if she weren’t there.
Sometimes, in the refectories, you would see groups of ten or fifteen or even twenty girls, joined one to the next by linked arms or hands on shoulders, or bodies pressed together.
For recreation he went on exploratory walks through the fine little city-state with its two churches, cloisters, archives, library, Abbot's apartment, and courtyards, with its extensive barns filled with thrifty livestock, its gurgling fountains, gigantic vaulted wine and fruit cellars, its two refectories, the famous chapter house, the well-tended gardens and the workshops of the lay brothers: cooper, cobbler, tailor, smith, and so on, all forming a small village around the largest courtyard.