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almsman

American  
[ahmz-muhn] / ˈɑmz mən /

noun

  • almsmen
    plural
  1. a person supported by or receiving alms.

  2. Archaic. a person who gives alms.


almsman British  
/ ˈɑːmzmən /

noun

  1. archaic a person who gives or receives alms

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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

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 William Carew Hazlitt

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 Goold Brown

O you, love's mendicancy who never tried, How little of your almsman me you know!

From New Poems by Francis Thompson

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 Noah Webster

Originally built for twelve almsmen and almswomen, they have been latterly occupied entirely by women.

From Hammersmith, Fulham and Putney The Fascination of London by Sir Walter Besant

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 Percy Dearmer

Then followed the dinner, to which were invited the assistants and the ladies, and old masters' wives and wardens' wives, the preacher, the schoolmaster, the wardens' substitutes, and the humble almsmen of the livery.

From Old and New London Volume I by Walter Thornbury

The contentment of these almsmen, if content they be, can give him no title to this wealth!

From The Warden by Anthony Trollope

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 Ebenezer Cobham Brewer

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