pesthouse

[ pest-hous ]

noun

, plural pest·hous·es [pest, -hou-ziz].

1. a house or hospital for persons infected with pestilential disease.

pesthouse

/ ˈpɛstˌhaʊs /

noun

1. obsolete.
   a hospital for treating persons with infectious diseases Also calledlazaretto

Word History and Origins

Origin of pesthouse¹

First recorded in 1605–15; pest + house

Example Sentences

Behind the pesthouse by lantern light men were digging a hurried grave.

From Literature

Now, blessed be God, all our fears are over, for none have died of the infection since the 11th of October, and all the pesthouses have been long empty.

From Project Gutenberg

Hence a universal Pythagorean noviciate would, sooner or later, give rise to epidemics, and Chartreuses of nuns would become pesthouses.

From Project Gutenberg

Jails were pesthouses, in which a disease, akin to our modern typhus, flourished often in epidemic form.

From Project Gutenberg

Among them also, undoubtedly, were many good high-minded men; the Jesuit, Friedrich Spee, met his death in a pesthouse, like that sailor in the flames.

From Project Gutenberg