purgatory

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See also: Purgatory

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English purgatorie, from Old French purgatore, purgatorie, from Latin purgātōrium (cleansing). Cognate to English purge.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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purgatory (countable and uncountable, plural purgatories)

  1. (Christianity) Alternative letter-case form of 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[1], 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[2], London: T. Becket, act I, scene 1, page 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, chapter 25, in Ruth[3]:
      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, chapter 10, in The Jungle[4]:
      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, chapter 11, in Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life[5], Penguin, page 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.
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Translations

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Adjective

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purgatory (comparative more purgatory, superlative most purgatory)

  1. Tending to cleanse; expiatory.

See also

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Middle English

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Proper noun

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purgatory

  1. Alternative form of purgatorie

Noun

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purgatory

  1. Alternative form of purgatorie