PURGATORY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does purgatory mean? 

• PURGATORY (noun)
  The noun PURGATORY has 2 senses:

1. a temporary condition of torment or suffering

2. (theology) in Roman Catholic theology the place where those who have died in a state of grace undergo limited torment to expiate their sins

  Familiarity information: PURGATORY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PURGATORY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A temporary condition of torment or suffering

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Context example:

a purgatory of drug abuse

Hypernyms ("purgatory" is a kind of...):

situation (a complex or critical or unusual difficulty)

Derivation:

purgatorial (of or resembling purgatory)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(theology) in Roman Catholic theology the place where those who have died in a state of grace undergo limited torment to expiate their sins

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("purgatory" is a kind of...):

fictitious place; imaginary place; mythical place (a place that exists only in imagination; a place said to exist in fictional or religious writings)

Domain category:

divinity; theology (the rational and systematic study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truth)

Derivation:

purgatorial (of or resembling purgatory)

 Context examples 

Deef I am, and dumb, as ye should be for the sake iv your mother; an’ never once have I opened me lips but to say fine things iv them an’ him, God curse his soul, an’ may he rot in purgatory ten thousand years, and then go down to the last an’ deepest hell iv all!

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

A contrite heart and ten nobles to holy mother Church may stave off perdition; but he hath a pardon of the first degree, with a twenty-five livre benison, so that I doubt if he will so much as feel a twinge of purgatory.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)