almshouse
Americannoun
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almshouses
plural
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a house endowed by private charity for the reception and support of the aged or infirm poor.
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(formerly) a poorhouse.
noun
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history a privately supported house offering accommodation to the aged or needy
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another name for poorhouse
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of almshouse
First recorded in 1350–1400, almshouse is from Middle English almes hous. See alms, house
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:
The painting, depicting five miracles of Christ, reportedly survived religious purges by being hidden at the almshouse for hundreds of years, Sotheby's said.
From BBC ● Nov. 14, 2025
It's their own wrong thought that's led them to the almshouse.
From Salon ● May 26, 2025
The museum in Leerdam is part of an almshouse for unmarried women that also showcases the collection of its 18th-century founder.
From New York Times ● Sep. 22, 2021
Elizabeth studied privately with a physician before medical school and between terms observed cases in an almshouse hospital.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 4, 2021
The city almshouse on Spruce Street was jammed with over three hundred paupers, while private institutions, such as the Friends’ Alms House, were also filled to capacity.
From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy
Like many almshouses, the layout includes a central communal area, in this case a garden.
From BBC ● Apr. 18, 2024
By 1874, public authorities were already removing destitute White children from their parents, often to be placed in almshouses.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 15, 2022
Still other skulls came from the potter’s fields of almshouses and public hospitals, where U.S. and European doctors had long sourced bodies for dissection.
From Science Magazine ● Jul. 8, 2021
Nursing homes rose from the almshouses in England and America that cared for the poor.
From Seattle Times ● May 7, 2021
Along the way, he built schools and almshouses, new roads and bridges, and even founded whole new towns, establishing himself as one of the most enlightened of the English landlords in Ireland at the time.
From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin
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.
