eleemosynary

adj

1. Relating to charity, alms, or almsgiving.

   “I am bound to say he didn't criticise his benefactors, though practically he got tired of them; she, however, had the highest standards about eleemosynary forms.”

   “He did some work for the New York Public Library . . . and also dabbled in eleemosynary science for the Russell Sage Foundation.”

2. Given in charity or alms; having the nature of alms

   “An author ought to consider himself, not as a gentleman who gives a private or eleemosynary treat, but rather as one who keeps a public ordinary, at which all persons are welcome for their money.”

   “His spirited refusal of an eleemosynary supply of shoes, arose, no doubt, from a proper pride.”

   “Crouch low thy neck to eleemosynary gifts.”

3. Supported by charity

   “... it is also true that the policy of nations, or the bounty of individuals, formerly did much to counteract the effect of this limitation of competition, by offering eleemosynary instruction to a much larger class of persons than could have obtained the same advantages by paying their price.”

   “[The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution] set the State up as the largest eleemosynary institution in the history of the world.”

   “Amidst all this, the legal business, the acquiring of land, the construction of the Montgomery Block, Billings had generosity and time to support the founding of the University of California and a half dozen churches, schools, orphan asylums and other eleemosynary institutions.”

noun

1. (obsolete)A beggar