poorhouse
Destitute persons' residence
A poorhouse was a publicly funded institution where people unable to support themselves—the destitute, elderly, or disabled—were housed and often required to work.
Common in the 19th and early 20th centuries before modern welfare systems: His grandfather died in the poorhouse.
The word survives mainly in the expression end up in the poorhouse, meaning to become financially ruined.
Extreme poverty, lacking necessities
- indigenceExtreme poverty, total want
- penuryExtreme lack of money
- pauperismCondition of being destitute
- privationLack of necessities
impoverishment · hardship · want · neediness · subsistence · scarcity · beggary · starvation
Of a prim era
- parishLocal church community
- settlementResolved dispute or colony
- debtors prisonJail for those owing money
- orphanageInstitution housing parentless children
asylum · tenement · slum · reform · overcrowding · dilapidated · squalor · ward
Easing of distress
- aidSupport given freely
- assistanceSupport or aid given
- almsGifts to the destitute
- charityVoluntary aid for others
handout · public charge · dole · benefit · subsidy · support · donation · philanthropy
Place of safety
- asylumShelter from persecution
- dormitoryStudent living building
- wardProtected person; division
- cotPortable sleeping frame
rations · admission · discharge · residents · overcrowding · communal · spartan · confinement
Painful awareness of failure
- disgraceLoss of honor
- humiliationLoss of dignity
- degradationDecline in condition
- outcastShunned, rejected person
pauper · burden · charity case · social death · desperation · last resort · rock bottom · fallen
destitution
Extreme poverty, lacking necessities
- indigenceExtreme poverty, total want
- penuryExtreme lack of money
- pauperismCondition of being destitute
privation · impoverishment · hardship · want · neediness · subsistence · scarcity · beggary · starvation · malnutrition
Victorian
Of a prim era
- parishLocal church community
- settlementResolved dispute or colony
- debtors prisonJail for those owing money
orphanage · asylum · tenement · slum · reform · overcrowding · dilapidated · squalor · ward · inmates
relief
Easing of distress
- aidSupport given freely
- assistanceSupport or aid given
- almsGifts to the destitute
charity · handout · public charge · dole · benefit · subsidy · support · donation · philanthropy · benevolence
refuge
Place of safety
cot · rations · admission · discharge · residents · overcrowding · communal · spartan · confinement · lodging
shame
Painful awareness of failure
- disgraceLoss of honor
- humiliationLoss of dignity
- degradationDecline in condition
outcast · pauper · burden · charity case · social death · desperation · last resort · rock bottom · fallen · ruined
- povertydestitution, penniless, needy, destitute, indigent
- Victorian Englandparlor, drawing room, scullery, townhouse, tenement
- Victorian establishmentsapothecary, coffeehouse, general store, gin palace, haberdashery
- Victorian institutionslunatic asylum, infirmary, orphanage, reformatory, foundling home
- Victorian povertytenement, slum, hovel, pauper, destitution
- Victorian reformtemperance movement, abolitionists, child labor, factory conditions, public health reform
poorhousehigh society
The social elite
country club · gentleman's club · upper crust · aristocracy · landed gentry