Purgatory
['pɜːgət(ə)rɪ] or ['pɝɡətɔri]
Definition
(noun.) (theology) in Roman Catholic theology the place where those who have died in a state of grace undergo limited torment to expiate their sins.
(noun.) a temporary condition of torment or suffering; 'a purgatory of drug abuse'.
Typed by Dewey--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) Tending to cleanse; cleansing; expiatory.
(n.) A state or place of purification after death; according to the Roman Catholic creed, a place, or a state believed to exist after death, in which the souls of persons are purified by expiating such offenses committed in this life as do not merit eternal damnation, or in which they fully satisfy the justice of God for sins that have been forgiven. After this purgation from the impurities of sin, the souls are believed to be received into heaven.
Typed by Deirdre
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. Limbo, hell, infernal regions, shades below.
Typist: Shirley
Examples
- They would have persuaded me I was in purgatory, but I knew too well the pursy short-breathed voice of the Father Abbot. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- She looked another way, disconcerted, and wondered how long this purgatory was to last. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- We have gone through several rounds of purgatory since you left, and I have lately got on to a worse ledge of it than ever. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- It is the most fanatical Mohammedan purgatory out of Arabia. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- His reference to the great games of which I had heard so much while among the Tharks convinced me that I had but jumped from purgatory into gehenna. Edgar Rice Burroughs. A Princess of Mars.
Editor: Terence