purgatory

Etymology

From Middle English purgatorie, from Old French purgatore, purgatorie, from Latin purgātōrium (“cleansing”). Cognate to English purge.

noun

1. (Christianity) Alternative letter-case form of Purgatory
2. Any situation where suffering is endured, particularly as part of a process of redemption.
   […] many Gods breedeth heathens miseries, many countries trauailers humors, many wiues mens purgatories, and many friends trustes ruine: 1605, Nicholas Breton, An Olde Mans Lesson, and a Young Mans Loue, London: Edward White
   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! 1774, John Burgoyne, The Maid of the Oaks, London: T. Becket, act I, scene 1, page 6
   It might be […] that Ruth had worked her way through the deep purgatory of repentance up to something like purity again; God only knew! 1853, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 25, in Ruth
   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. 1904, Upton Sinclair, chapter 10, in The Jungle
   […] 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. 1997, J. M. Coetzee, chapter 11, in Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life, Penguin, page 100

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. 1600, Philemon Holland, transl., The Roman Historie Written by T. Livius of Padua, London, Book 41, p. 1103
   This purgatory interval is not unfavourable to a faithless representative, who may be as good a canvasser as he was a bad governor. 1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, London: J. Dodsley, page 272