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pesthouse

American  
[pest-hous] / ˈpɛstˌhaʊs /

noun

plural

pesthouses

  1. a house or hospital for persons infected with pestilential disease.

pesthouse British  
/ ˈpɛstˌhaʊs /

noun

  1. Also called: lazaretto.  obsolete a hospital for treating persons with infectious diseases

"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

Etymology

Origin of pesthouse

First recorded in 1605–15; pest + 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.

A century ago Bellevue was a filthy, hellish pesthouse for typhus and yellow fever; 50 years ago a dumping ground for drunken bums, bastards, lunatics, penniless incurables.

From Time Magazine Archive

Liberia has become the scandal and pesthouse of West Africa.

From Time Magazine Archive

En route, the patient spent four days in a pesthouse in Lagos.

From Time Magazine Archive

In a few days the fort was a raging pesthouse, isolated from the world.

From Time Magazine Archive

Behind the pesthouse by lantern light men were digging a hurried grave.

From "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Hoskins Forbes

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.