poorhouse
Americannoun
-
poorhouses
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of poorhouse
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:
Written by Arcel and Anders Thomas Jensen, the well-paced story briskly takes Kahlen from the poorhouse to the royal palace minutes after opening, establishing the reach of his ambition.
From New York Times ● Feb. 1, 2024
When Marla Carter visits her mother-in-law at a nursing home in Owensboro, Kentucky, the scene feels more 19th-century poorhouse than modern-day America.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 15, 2023
Elon Musk is not heading to the poorhouse if this thing doesn’t work out.
From Slate ● Apr. 25, 2022
When it comes to the lives of the people whose homes he supervises, Carson bears more than a superficial resemblance to a Dickensian poorhouse supervisor.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 28, 2018
The pump was set in a little shed at the edge of the Common, a big gathering place ringed by army barracks, the poorhouse, and the jail.
From "Chains" by Laurie Halse Anderson
The first approach argues for “indoor relief,” placing individuals primarily in institutions like poorhouses, or today’s public shelters.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026
Older adults were generally considered a “burden on the local taxes,” and many were either sent to poorhouses or auctioned off as farm labor.
From Salon ● Apr. 7, 2025
I recently read Dorothea Dix’s 1843 report on her investigation into the care of mentally ill people in poorhouses and prisons in Massachusetts.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 23, 2022
Black parents searched on their own, scouring orphanages, prisons, poorhouses.
From New York Times ● Oct. 27, 2020
How church spires would crumble for lack of support, and poorhouses lessen in number for lack of inmates!
From An Ambitious Man by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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.
