Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A hospital for persons infected with the plague, smallpox, or other pestilential disease.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A house or hospital for persons who are infected with any pestilential disease.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An establishment which provides shelter and/or care to sufferers of pestilence or other contagious infections

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun hospital for persons with infectious diseases (especially leprosy)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

pest + house

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Examples

  • The Workhouse was described as a pesthouse, and the guardians in terror had abandoned it.

    The History of the Great Irish Famine of 1847 (3rd ed.) (1902) With Notices of Earlier Irish Famines John O'Rourke

  • "Do you know," said Gloriana, as the black-eyed girl finished relating the afternoon's happenings to her, "I half believe that man snooping around the pesthouse is the robber."

    Tabitha's Vacation Ruth Alberta Brown

  • Susan Balée asks Jim Crace Where 'the pesthouse' came from.

    Today's Inquirer reviews ... Frank Wilson 2007

  • We've been running a pesthouse (flu, ear infections, pinkeye, you name it) here for near on a month and I just can't bring myself to yell for help.

    Dru Blood - I believe in the inherent goodness of all beings: Community 2004

  • The door of the pesthouse had opened abruptly and a short, portly man roughly dressed, unshaved and florid of complexion, appeared on the threshold a moment, eyed the approaching girls indifferently, glanced searchingly toward town, and again vanished within, closing the door behind him.

    Tabitha's Vacation Ruth Alberta Brown

  • At all events, there he was, standing erect behind the rail, surprised to find the avenues so large, so silent, the window curtains down, and Paris as gloomy as a great pesthouse; flags everywhere, but such strange flags bearing a red cross on a white field, and no crowd to meet our soldiers.

    Short Stories of Various Types Various

  • At this broad hint, the curious crowd reluctantly withdrew, and left the trio alone at the pesthouse threshold.

    Tabitha's Vacation Ruth Alberta Brown

  • "It's nice to have a Niece Gloriana, too," he answered gruffly, clearing his throat with much gusto; and as there seemed to be nothing further to say, the trio turned from the lonely pesthouse, and silently climbed the hill toward town.

    Tabitha's Vacation Ruth Alberta Brown

  • But this afternoon while the assayer was dragging you out of the prospect hole, and I was watching through your field glasses, I happened to turn them in the direction of the pesthouse, and there he was again, humped up on the doorsill, watching through glasses of his own.

    Tabitha's Vacation Ruth Alberta Brown

  • We had decided that if we got the smallpox we would go to the pesthouse together, but we heard of the awfully insanitary conditions there, and that they used blankets from one patient's bed for another, so I thought that as long as I did not have it I had better not go and get it.

    Twice Sold, Twice Ransomed Autobiography of Mr. and Mrs. L. P. Ray 1924

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