Lazarus rare.
(ˈlæzərəs)
[Allusive use of the proper name: see lazar.]
A leper; a beggar. (In the first quot. the allusion may be to the Lazarus who was raised from the dead: see John xi.)
| 1508 Dunbar Flyting w. Kennedie 161 Thow Lazarus, thow laithly lene tramort. 1634–5 Brereton Trav. (Chetham Soc.) 9 Only Lazaruses..are permitted to beg their victuals. 1850 S. G. Osborne Gleanings 15 Lazari, to whom the hated workhouse had come to be as the palace of a Dives. 1879 Farrar St. Paul (1883) 491 The poor, hungry-eyed Lazaruses—half-starved slaves..sat famishing and unrelieved. |
b. attrib.: † lazarus-clapper, a clapper or rattle with which a leper gave notice of his approach; † lazarus-house = lazar-house.
| 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 350 By the waye they set on fyre the poore Lazarus house, cleane contrary to the lawe of armes. 1593 Hollyband Dict., Le Cliquet de l'huis, the hammer or ring of a doore, also a lazarous clapper. 1634–5 Brereton Trav. (Chetham Soc.) 10 About half a mile from this town is this alms-house, this Lazarus house. |