A house for lazars or diseased persons, esp. lepers; a leper-house, lazaretto.
1530. Palsgr., 237/2. Lasarhouse, lasdriere.
1543. in Vicary’s Anat. (1888), App. iii. 149. Mr. R. H. … appointed one of the gouernours and Vysytours of the lazarhouses.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 574. A Lazarhouse of women in Wilt-shire which one of the said sisters, being herselfe infected with the Leprosie built for them that had the same disease.
1667. Milton, P. L., XI. 477. Immediately a place Before his eyes appeard, sad, noysom, dark, A Lazar-house it seemd.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 363, ¶ 13. A large hospital or lazar-house, fill’d with persons lying under all kinds of mortal diseases.
1794. Coleridge, Relig. Musings, x. The closing gates Of the full Lazar-house.
1889. Jessopp, Coming of Friars, i. 21. Lepers … driven forth to curse and howl in the lazar-house outside the walls.
fig. 1820. Byron, Mar. Fal., III. i. Thou must be cleansed of the black blood which makes thee A lazar-house of tyranny.
1880. G. Meredith, Tragic Com. (1881), 160. Their house would be a lazar-house, they would be condemned to seclusion.
