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poor, as money, food, or clothing; a gift of charity. A devout man . . . which gave much alms to the people. Acts x. 2. Alms are but the vehicles of prayer. Dryden. Tenure by free alms. See Frankalmoign. Blackstone.

An act of charity. Acts ix. 36.

Persons supported by alms; almsmen. [Archaic] Holinshed.

A giver of alms.

The giving of alms.

A house appropriated for the use of the poor; a poorhouse.

A recipient of alms. Shak.

A kind of sweet wine from Crete, the Canary Islands, etc. Shak.

Not having received alms. [Obs. & R.] Pollock.

or formed by, the letters of the alphabet; alphabetic; hence, rudimentary. Abecedarian psalms, hymns, etc., compositions in which (like the 119th psalm in Hebrew) distinct portions or verses commence with successive letters of the alphabet. Hook.

vagabonds who formerly roamed through England, feigning lunacy for the sake of obtaining alms. Nares. To sham Abraham, to feign sickness. Goldsmith.

ffense; -- followed by of, against, or a subordinate clause. Admonishing one another in psalms and hymns. Col. iii. 16. I warned thee, I admonished thee, foretold The danger, and the lurking enemy. Milton.

See Alms. [Obs.]

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.

The place where an almoner resides, or where alms are distributed.

Alms. [Obs.] Cheke.

Formerly, a hymn sung in alternate parts, in present usage, a selection from the Psalms, or other parts of the Scriptures or the liturgy, set to sacred music.

A verse said before and after the psalms. Shipley.

A genus of palms, one species of which produces the areca nut, or betel nut, which is chewed in India with the leaf of the Piper Betle and lime.

A form of Ambry, a closet; but confused with Almonry, as if a place for alms.