orphans' asylum
- noun
- /ˈɔr.fənz əˈsaɪ.ləm/
- Archaic
:
asilo de huérfanos
- The local orphans' asylum provides shelter and education.
Examples
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The city raised funds to support the local orphans' asylum during the harsh winter.
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Many children found a new home at the orphans' asylum after losing their parents.
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In the 19th century, it was common for abandoned children to be placed in an orphans' asylum.
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Many children found a home in the orphans' asylum.
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In the 19th century, it was common for abandoned children to be placed in an orphans' asylum.
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Many children found a new home at the orphans' asylum after losing their parents.
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The local orphans' asylum provides shelter and education to those in need.
Synonyms
188
5.7
A safe place where people go to escape danger or harm
168
2.8
A home where children who have no living parents are cared for
77
2.6
Temporary care in another home for children who cannot live with their parents
1
9.9
A place where children who have no parents live and learn
A place where abandoned newborn babies are taken and cared for
Surface Forms
Morphology
orphans' + asylum
The meaning is directly inferable from 'orphans'' (children without parents) + 'asylum' (a place of shelter/protection): together they denote a shelter for orphans. Although 'asylum' has other senses (e.g. political or psychiatric), in this noun phrase the composition is straightforward and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words can reliably deduce the meaning.
Etymology
The noun orphans' asylum comes from the older meaning of asylum as 'a safe place'. Communities once set up such asylums to give children without parents food, housing and care, so the phrase now means 'a public institution that cares for orphans'.