PENITEN'TIARY, a. Relating to penance, or to the rules and measures of penance. PENITEN'TIARY, n. One that prescribes the rules and measures of penance. 1. A penitent; one that does penance.2. At the court of Rome, an office in which are examined and delivered out the secret bulls, graces or dispensations relating to cases of conscience, confession, &c.3. An officer in some cathedrals, vested with power from the bishop to absolve in cases reserved to him. The pope has a grand penitentiary, who is a cardinal and is chief of the other penitentiaries.4. A house of correction in which offenders are confined for punishment and reformation, and compelled to labor; a workhouse. A state prison is a penitentiary.
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