purgatory

noun

1. (alt-of, countable, uncountable)Alternative letter-case form of Purgatory.
2. (countable, uncountable)Any situation where suffering is endured, particularly as part of a process of redemption.

   “the purgatory of lost love”

   “[…] many Gods breedeth heathens miseries, many countries trauailers humors, many wiues mens purgatories, and many friends trustes ruine:”

   “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!”

   “It might be […] that Ruth had worked her way through the deep purgatory of repentance up to something like purity again; God only knew!”

   “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.”

adj

1. Tending to cleanse; expiatory.

   “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.”

   “This purgatory interval is not unfavourable to a faithless representative, who may be as good a canvasser as he was a bad governor.”

name

1. An intermediate state after death in which some of those ultimately destined for Heaven must first undergo purification.