ˈlazar-house
A house for lazars or diseased persons, esp. lepers; a leper-house, lazaretto.
| 1530 Palsgr. 237/2 Lasarhouse, lasdriere. 1543 in Vicary's Anat. (1888) App. iii. 149 Mr. R. H...appointed one of the gouernours and Vysytours of the lazarhouses. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. i. 574 A Lazarhouse of women in Wilt-shire which one of the said sisters, being herselfe infected with the Leprosie built for them that had the same disease. 1667 Milton P.L. xi. 479. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 363 ¶13 A large hospital or lazar-house, fill'd with persons lying under all kinds of mortal diseases. 1794 Coleridge Relig. Musings x, The closing gates Of the full Lazar-house. 1889 Jessopp Coming of Friars i. 21 Lepers..driven forth to curse and howl in the lazar-house outside the walls. |
| fig. 1820 Byron Mar. Fal. iii. i, Thou must be cleansed of the black blood which makes thee A lazar-house of tyranny. 1880 G. Meredith Tragic Com. (1881) 160 Their house would be a lazar-house, they would be condemned to seclusion. |