Definition of "penal colony" [penal colony]

• A colonial territory used (mainly) for the detention and forced labor of deportees, typically where free labor is desperately scarce. (noun)

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• "Gettys was a rough place to live, a settlement half military outpost and half penal colony on the easternmost boundary of the Kingdom of Gernia."
• "The frequently published statement in justification of Cromwell's persecution, that the victimes of this white slave-traffic were criminals, finds no corroboration in the existence of a single penal colony in this country."