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purgatory. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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English
Etymology
From Middle English purgatorie, from Old French purgatore, purgatorie, from Latin purgātōrium (“cleansing”). Cognate to English purge.
Pronunciation
Noun
purgatory (countable and uncountable, plural purgatories)
- (Christianity) Alternative letter-case form of Purgatory
- 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, 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: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: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, 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.
Translations
situation causing suffering
Adjective
purgatory (comparative more purgatory, superlative most purgatory)
- Tending to cleanse; expiatory.
1600, Philemon Holland, transl., The Roman Historie Written by T. Livius of Padua, 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.
See also
Middle English
Proper noun
purgatory
- Alternative form of purgatorie
Noun
purgatory
- Alternative form of purgatorie