noun
- plural of pesthouse; buildings or institutions used to isolate and treat patients with infectious diseases, especially plague or other epidemic diseases
Usage: historical; often used in reference to medieval and early modern European institutions
Examples
- During the plague outbreak, the city established several pesthouses on the outskirts to contain the disease.
- Medieval pesthouses were often poorly equipped and offered little hope of recovery to their patients.
- The pesthouses of Renaissance Italy served as both hospitals and quarantine centers.
- Patients admitted to pesthouses faced harsh conditions and limited medical care.
- Historical records describe the pesthouses as grim facilities where the sick were segregated from the general population.