eleemosynary

comparative more eleemosynary · superlative most eleemosynary · alternative eleëmosynary

1. Relating to charity, alms, or almsgiving.

   He did some work for the New York Public Library . . . and also dabbled in eleemosynary science for the Russell Sage Foundation.

   1918, Christopher Morley, “Owd Bob”, in Mince Pie

   1 more example

   I am bound to say he didn't criticise his benefactors, though practically he got tired of them; she, however, had the highest standards about eleemosynary forms.

   1894, Henry James, The Coxon Fund

2. Given in charity or alms; having the nature of alms

   Crouch low thy neck to eleemosynary gifts.

   1892, Walt Whitman, “To the Pending Year”, in Leaves of Grass

   2 more examples

   An author ought to consider himself, not as a gentleman who gives a private or eleemosynary treat, but rather as one who keeps a public ordinary, at which all persons are welcome for their money.

   1749, Henry Fielding, chapter I, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book I

   His spirited refusal of an eleemosynary supply of shoes, arose, no doubt, from a proper pride.

   1791, James Boswell, Life of Johnson, Aetat. 22

3. Supported by charity

   [The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution] set the State up as the largest eleemosynary institution in the history of the world.

   1959, Frank Chodorov, The Rise and Fall of Society, Devin-Adair, Chapter 14, page 143

   2 more examples

   ... it is also true that the policy of nations, or the bounty of individuals, formerly did much to counteract the effect of this limitation of competition, by offering eleemosynary instruction to a much larger class of persons than could have obtained the same advantages by paying their price.

   1871, John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy, p. 482

   Amidst all this, the legal business, the acquiring of land, the construction of the Montgomery Block, Billings had generosity and time to support the founding of the University of California and a half dozen churches, schools, orphan asylums and other eleemosynary institutions.

   1991 October 27, Washington Post

plural eleemosynaries · alternative eleëmosynary

1. obsoleteA beggar