noun
- a publicly maintained institution providing housing and care for poor or destitute people
Usage: historical
Examples
- Many elderly people feared ending up in the poorhouse during the Great Depression.
- The old poorhouse was converted into a community center in the 1960s.
- Families worked hard to avoid sending their relatives to the poorhouse.
- The poorhouse provided basic shelter and meals for those with nowhere else to go.
- Local taxes funded the operation of the town’s poorhouse.
- She threatened to end up in the poorhouse if she kept spending money so carelessly.