poorhouse

[ poor-hous ]

noun,plural poor·hous·es [poor-hou-ziz]. /ˈpʊərˌhaʊ zɪz/.
  1. (formerly) an institution in which paupers were maintained at public expense.

Origin of poorhouse

1
First recorded in 1735–45; poor + house

Words Nearby poorhouse

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use poorhouse in a sentence

  • For these people, under the older dispensation, there was nothing but the poorhouse, the jail or starvation by the roadside.

  • I don't much like to say the poorhouse, where I was took after my folks died, and I hate to say Mrs. Stott's truck-farm.

    Dorothy at Skyrie | Evelyn Raymond
  • When we arrived at Posen we took up our quarters in the Jewish poorhouse, the master of which was a poor jobbing tailor.

  • But it would mean all the difference between penury and dread of the poorhouse on the one hand and safety on the other to David.

    Dominie Dean | Ellis Parker Butler
  • In a few weeks, they got on so well that they began to take their relations and friends out of that terrible poorhouse.

British Dictionary definitions for poorhouse

poorhouse

/ (ˈpʊəˌhaʊs, ˈpɔː-) /


noun
  1. (formerly) a publicly maintained institution offering accommodation to the poor

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