ˈalms-dish
A dish or plate for the reception of alms, used in churches, in the houses of the charitable, or carried by beggars.
| 1381 in Test. Ebor. I. 114 Je devise al priour du dit Couent..les mazers et le grant almesdych d'argent. c 1460 Bk. Curtasye in Babees Bk. 325 In þe lordys cupp þat leuys vndrynken, Into þe almesdisshe hit schalle be sonken. 1469 Ord. R. Househ. 89 The almes-disshe, to be gyven to the moste needy man or woman. 1785 Burns Jolly Beggars 24 While she held up her greedy gab Just like an aumos dish. 1859 Autobiog. Beggar-boy 9 Many of the farmers' wives kept what was then called an aumous dish; this was a small turned wooden dish, and was filled according to the deserts of the claimants or the feeling of the donor. |