as in reformative
serving to raise or adjust something to some standard or proper condition
the belief that manual labor was a reformatory experience for convicted felons, who would learn the value of hard work
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as in reform school
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Recent Examples of reformatory
JSTOR Daily, 24 June 2024
His mother sent him to the Élan School in Maine, a reformatory boarding institution with extreme forms of discipline, including shouting sessions and boxing matches, that attracted widespread criticism and that led to the school’s closing in 2011.
—Alex Traub, New York Times, 7 Mar. 2024
Mara Bovsun, New York Daily News, 9 Feb. 2025
Bearing the brunt of an innocent misstep, he’s sentenced to the netherworld of Nickel Academy, a brutal reformatory sunk deep in the Jim Crow South.
—Samantha Bergeson, IndieWire, 13 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for reformatory
Adjective
While Spanish Catholicism and reformatory Protestantism favored black clothing, much of the Renaissance happened in an explosion of color.
—JSTOR Daily, 24 June 2024
His mother sent him to the Élan School in Maine, a reformatory boarding institution with extreme forms of discipline, including shouting sessions and boxing matches, that attracted widespread criticism and that led to the school’s closing in 2011.
—Alex Traub, New York Times, 7 Mar. 2024
Noun
Her behavior became so outrageous and uncontrollable that her family arranged to send her to a girls’ reformatory.
—Mara Bovsun, New York Daily News, 9 Feb. 2025
Bearing the brunt of an innocent misstep, he’s sentenced to the netherworld of Nickel Academy, a brutal reformatory sunk deep in the Jim Crow South.
—Samantha Bergeson, IndieWire, 13 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for reformatory
Recent Examples of Synonyms for reformatory
Adjective
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Fifty-five years after Martin Luther King's death, African Americans continue to proudly honor his reformative legacy in Phoenix.—
The Arizona Republic,
The Arizona Republic,
14 Jan. 2024
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While the idea of hiring actors might raise some eyebrows, acting and artistry can be an important step in the reformative process, and Hemsworth suggested that the actors’ real-life experiences helped shape their on-screen characters.—
Wesley Stenzel,
EW.com,
5 Dec. 2023
Noun
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Sunshine state panhandle reform school – a process that required a lot of trust, on all sides of the camera.—
Dominic Patten,
Deadline,
14 Feb. 2025
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The scene primarily involves the character Hattie (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor), who has come to visit her grandson, Elwood, at the reform school Nickel Academy, where the boy has been sent unjustly.—
Mekado Murphy,
New York Times,
24 Jan. 2025
Adjective
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But Department of Social Services regulators have substantiated a host of other violations in recent years and ordered the facility to implement corrective actions, records show.—
Jeff Mcdonald,
Mercury News,
12 May 2025
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By creating structured processes for human experts to validate AI decisions and provide corrective feedback, enterprises can accelerate the learning curve for their agents while managing risk.—
Manish Garg,
Forbes.com,
8 May 2025
Noun
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Players start off delving through a dungeon fighting rust beasts, when Stamp runs into a ragtag group of youngsters who call their gang BB.—
Gieson Cacho,
Mercury News,
18 Apr. 2025
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From Jon Snow and Ygritte to Daenerys and Drogo, these Westeros couples are the ones EW would go to battle for — or lock up in the Red Keep dungeons.—
Tyler Aquilina,
EW.com,
17 Apr. 2025
Noun
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The new Scuola Bulgari is the first publicly accessible Bulgari training school focused on jewelry, which will open in September.—
Luisa Zargani,
Footwear News,
16 Apr. 2025
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The facility has an on-site training school, which welcomes groups of 10 apprentices at a time and also provides on-the-job training for existing employees, who are 82 percent female and range in age from 18 to 65.—
Joelle Diderich,
Footwear News,
2 Apr. 2025
Noun
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What kind of people approve of a government that extra-judicially kidnaps innocents and renders them into the hands of a foreign gulag—and then hides behind that government when ordered by an American court to bring them back?—
Matt Robison,
MSNBC Newsweek,
16 Apr. 2025
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One man who was a dissident imprisoned in a Soviet gulag—future Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Natan Sharansky—had this to say about hearing of Reagan's description of the Soviet Union as an evil empire.—
Josh Hammer,
Newsweek,
19 Mar. 2025
Noun
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One is a stony oubliette with crystals growing out of the walls.—
Erin Alberty,
Axios,
6 Jan. 2025
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One is a stony oubliette with crystals growing out of the walls.—
Erin Alberty,
Axios,
6 Jan. 2025
Noun
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Ensure the keep pile isn’t overflowing while your donate pile is slim.—
Rebecca Jones,
Southern Living,
29 Mar. 2025
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Tell that to the millions of regular people working at fast-food joints and factories who must go to work every day to earn their keep.—
Laura Washington,
Chicago Tribune,
12 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Reformatory.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/reformatory. Accessed 18 May. 2025.
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