English
purgatory
see also: Purgatory
Pronunciation
  • (GA) IPA: /ˈpɝɡəˌtɔɹi/
  • (RP) IPA: /ˈpɜːɡətɹi/
Noun

purgatory

  1. (Christianity) Alternative letter-case form of Purgatory#English|Purgatory
  2. Any situation where suffering is endured, particularly as part of a process of redemption.
    • 1605, Nicholas Breton, An Olde Mans Lesson, and a Young Mans Loue, London: Edward White,
      […] many Gods breedeth heathens miseries, many countries trauailers humors, many wiues mens purgatories, and many friends trustes ruine:
    • 1774, John Burgoyne, The Maid of the Oaks, London: T. Becket, Act I, Scene 1, p. 6,
      I laid my rank and fortune at the fair one’s feet, and would have married instantly; but that Oldworth opposed my precipitancy, and insisted upon a probation of six months absence—It has been a purgatory!
    • 1853, Elizabeth Gaskell, Ruth (novel), Chapter 25,
      It might be […] that Ruth had worked her way through the deep purgatory of repentance up to something like purity again; God only knew!
    • 1904, Upton Sinclair, The Jungle (novel), Chapter 10,
      Later came midsummer, with the stifling heat, when the dingy killing beds of Durham’s became a very purgatory; one time, in a single day, three men fell dead from sunstroke.
    • 1997, J. M. Coetzee, Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life, Penguin, Chapter 11, p. 100,
      […] that would mean he would be irrecoverably Afrikaans and would have to spend years in the purgatory of an Afrikaans boarding-school, as all farm-children do, before he would be allowed to come back to the farm.
Translations Adjective

purgatory

  1. Tending to cleanse; expiatory.
    • 1600, Philemon Holland (translator), Ab Urbe Condita Libri (Livy) Written by Livy, London, Book 41, p. 1103,
      Last of all, the prodigie of Siracusa was expiat by a purgatory sacrifice, by direction from the soothsaiers to what gods, supplications and sacrifice should be made.
    • 1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, London: J. Dodsley, p. 272,
      This purgatory interval is not unfavourable to a faithless representative, who may be as good a canvasser as he was a bad governor.
Purgatory
Proper noun
  1. (Christianity) An intermediate state after death in which some of those ultimately destined for Heaven must first undergo purification prior to entering Heaven.
Synonyms Translations

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