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
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 John Donne
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
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
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
It included a building, a warden, and twelve almsmen, and it was to be continued—for it had been founded in good Sir William's lifetime—after his death.
From Through East Anglia in a Motor Car by J. E. (James Edmund) Vincent
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
Being once bound thine almsmen for that gift, We are bound to beggary, nor our own can call The journal dole of customary life, But after suit obsequious for't to thee.
From New Poems by Francis Thompson
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 Sir Walter Besant
It was, when made of coarse material, commonly worn in the middle ages by pilgrims, beggars and almsmen.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 4 "G" to "Gaskell, Elizabeth" by Various
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.
