alms dish
- noun
:
plato de limosnas
- The usher passed the alms dish along the pews to collect donations.
Examples
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Please place your donation in the alms dish.
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The alms dish was filled with coins and bills by the end of the ceremony.
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A silver alms dish was displayed on the altar during the special service.
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The church passed around an alms dish during the service.
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A silver alms dish was displayed on the altar during the special service.
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The alms dish was filled with coins and bills by the end of the ceremony.
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The usher passed the alms dish along the pews to collect donations.
Synonyms
26
6.7
A shallow dish passed around in church to collect money
7
3.2
A shallow dish people pass around in church to collect money
A tray people pass around during a religious service to collect money
A box in a church where people put money for the poor
How Secure
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and transparently compositional: 'alms' (donations for the poor) + 'dish' (a shallow plate) yields a plate used to collect donations. This is a regular noun–noun combination with a clear, cross-linguistically common logic, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Alms dish comes from a clear image of a shallow plate passed around at church to collect money. People would drop alms, gifts for the poor, into the dish, so the phrase means a plate used for collecting 'donations' during a service.