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. [J. D. Burn], 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.
