noun
Gender
Is almsman gender-neutral? See -man.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of almsman
First recorded before 1000; Middle English almes man, Old English ælmesman; see alms, -man
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Even before Moscow began threatening to play the economic card, Warsaw's creditors in the West were seeking ways of shoring up their ailing almsman.
From Time Magazine Archive
Thus, though we find in Johnson, alms-basket, alms-giver, with the hyphen; we have almsdeed, almshouse, almsman, without: and many similar examples of an unsettled practice might be adduced, sufficient to fill several pages.
From The Grammar of English Grammars by Brown, Goold
A poor man, supported in a beadhouse, and required to pray for the soul of its founder; an almsman.
From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd 100 Pages) by Webster, Noah
What fugitive, what almsman of any foreign state, can do so much harm as a detractor, a libeller, a scornful jester at home?
From Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions Together with Death's Duel by Donne, John
A little money, kept to give in alms, I have about me: deathsman, take it all; Thou art the last poor almsman I shall see.
From A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 8 by Hazlitt, William Carew
Miss Augustine, saintly sister, who tries to "turn the curse from Whiteladies, by her own prayers and those of her almsmen."
From Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1 A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook by Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham
The hospital or almshouses stands on the high road from Wimborne to Blandford; the chapel joins one of the tenements occupied by the almsmen.
From Bell's Cathedrals: Wimborne Minster and Christchurch Priory A Short History of Their Foundation and a Description of Their Buildings by Perkins, Thomas, Rev.
To this charity were added various sums from benefactors from time to time, and the number of recipients was increased gradually, until in 1855 there were 100 boys and 45 almsmen.
From Hammersmith, Fulham and Putney The Fascination of London by Besant, Walter, Sir
It was much spoilt in the fifties: the original plan was a great hall, with a chapel at the end of it, and cells along the side for the almsmen.
From Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Wells A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal See by Dearmer, Percy
The almsmen of Ely and Rochester have cloaks.
From Vanishing England by Ditchfield, P. H. (Peter Hampson)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
