Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One who distributes alms.
  • noun Chiefly British A hospital social worker.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A dispenser of alms or charity; especially, a person charged with the distribution of alms as an official duty.
  • noun An alms-purse.
  • noun In general, a purse, especially a large purse, or pouch, usually (from the twelfth century until the fifteenth) hung from the girdle.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who distributes alms, esp. the doles and alms of religious houses, almshouses, etc.; also, one who dispenses alms for another, as the almoner of a prince, bishop, etc.
  • noun Chiefly Brit. A social worker in a hospital.
  • noun Chiefly Brit. An official in a hospital whose job it is to calculate how much a patient must pay for treatment.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun one who distributes alms, especially the doles and alms of religious houses, almshouses;
  • noun one who dispenses alms for another, as the almoner of a prince, bishop
  • noun a title given to a royal officer charged with the duty of distributing alms or bounty on behalf of a monarch

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an official in a British hospital who looks after the social and material needs of the patients

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English aumoner, from Old French aumonier, from amosne, alms, from Late Latin eleēmosyna, alms; see alms.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English aumener, aulmener, Old French almosnier, aumosnier, French aumônier, from Old French almosne ("alms"), Latin eleemosyna. See alms, Almosen.

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Examples

  • Since the almoner must obtain the funds or goods he distributes from the producers, he has no authority to command; he must ask.

    Notable & Quotable 2012

  • But now, according to her almoner, preparations for her death have increasingly occupied her thoughts, so I believe she is reconciled to it.

    The Tudors: King Takes Queen Elizabeth Massie 2010

  • I knew already that Sir Charles Baskerville had made Stapleton his almoner upon several occasions, so the lady's statement bore the impress of truth upon it.

    The Seriously Deranged Writer and the Model Cars 2010

  • But now, according to her almoner, preparations for her death have increasingly occupied her thoughts, so I believe she is reconciled to it.

    The Tudors: King Takes Queen Elizabeth Massie 2010

  • Moreover, Duwes depicted Mary as possessing a precocious grasp of the complex details of office holding and patronage when Mary threatened the almoner specifically with the denial of "a good benefyce" or church office that the old almoner had evidently been coveting.

    From Heads of Household to Heads of State: The Preaccession Households of Mary and Elizabeth Tudor, 1516-1558 2008

  • Anne stared at the almoner though could not focus on his face.

    The Tudors: King Takes Queen Elizabeth Massie 2010

  • But now, according to her almoner, preparations for her death have increasingly occupied her thoughts, so I believe she is reconciled to it.

    The Tudors: King Takes Queen Elizabeth Massie 2010

  • Anne stared at the almoner though could not focus on his face.

    The Tudors: King Takes Queen Elizabeth Massie 2010

  • Anne stared at the almoner though could not focus on his face.

    The Tudors: King Takes Queen Elizabeth Massie 2010

  • At the end of the mass the grand almoner approached the prie-Dieu of the king and presented to him the marriage register of the royal parish, which the cure had carried.

    Marie-Antoinette's Wedding elena maria vidal 2009

Comments

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  • "The hospital almoner wanted to contact his father but Thaw withheld the address." - 'Lanark', Alasdair Gray.

    December 4, 2007

  • Citation on nonsuit.

    October 9, 2008