[f. BEGUINE + -AGE.] An establishment of, or house for, beguines; often giving a name to a part of a town in the Low Countries.
1815. Southey, in C. Southey, Life & Corr., IV. 127. Ibid. (1819), in Q. Rev., XXII. 94. The house at Little Gidding bore no resemblance whatever to a beguinage.
1854. H. Strickland, Trav. Th., 26. Went to the Beguinage. Nunnery of nuns who are not nuns; that is, who vow no vows, and may go away and marry whenever they like.
