charity school

noun U.S. History.

an elementary school, usually funded by charitable persons or organizations, for those unable to pay: a forerunner of the public-school system.

Origin of charity school

First recorded in 1675–85

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for charity school

Historical Examples of charity school

It is now a charity-school, a lighthouse, and a life-saving station.
England, Picturesque and Descriptive
Joel Cook
You are not well at all: youre as pale and peaked as a charity-school girl!
Dust
Julian Hawthorne
No one could expect much from a charity-school in the fifteenth century.
Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam
Ephraim Emerton
Eton, at its foundation, was a charity-school for seventy boys.
Confessions of an Etonian
I. E. M.
Then, on the other side of my bed, I saw an open cloister, and presently I saw that it was lined with charity-school children.
Story of My Life, volumes 1-3
Augustus J. C. Hare