1. penitentiary - Noun
2. penitentiary - Adjective
3. penitentiary - Adjective Satellite
Relating to penance, or to the rules and measures of penance.
Expressive of penitence; as, a penitentiary letter.
Used for punishment, discipline, and reformation.
One who prescribes the rules and measures of penance.
One who does penance.
A small building in a monastery where penitents confessed.
That part of a church to which penitents were admitted.
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.
An officer in some dioceses since A. D. 1215, vested with power from the bishop to absolve in cases reserved to him.
A house of correction, in which offenders are confined for punishment, discipline, and reformation, and in which they are generally compelled to labor.
Source: Webster's dictionaryIf it wasn't for baseball, I'd be in either the penitentiary or the cemetery. Babe Ruth
The men who start out with the notion that the world owes them a living generally find that the world pays its debt in the penitentiary or the poor house. William Graham Sumner
It's almost like a lot of black people in America, a lot of young black men, are born with this cloud over their heads. It's their penitentiary cloud, this philosophy we all have, that it's harder for us. Erykah Badu
If forced to choose between the penitentiary and the White House for four years, I would say the penitentiary, thank you. William Tecumseh Sherman
It was ridiculous-he was soaking. I had to get a towel and offer him clothes that he wouldn't take. I knew immediately that I'd like him; he just had one of those faces. I could see what he'd been like as a boy, probably always fenced off in the electronic penitentiary of a too-fast mind. Russell Brand
I grew to manhood in the Ohio State Penitentiary. Chester Himes