hospital
Pronunciation
  • (RP) IPA: /ˈhɒs.pɪ.tl̩/
  • (obsolete, RP) IPA: /ˈɒs.pɪ.tl̩/
  • (America) IPA: /ˈhɑs.pɪ.tl̩/, /ˈhɑs.pɪ.t̬l̩/
Noun

hospital (plural hospitals)

  1. A large medical facility, usually in a building with multiple floors, where seriously ill or injured patients are given extensive medical and/or surgical treatment.
    Luckily an ambulance arrived quickly and he was rushed to hospital. (UK)
    Luckily an ambulance arrived quickly and he was rushed to the hospital. (US)
  2. A building founded for the long-term care of its residents, such as an almshouse. The residents may have no physical ailments, but simply need financial support.
  3. (obsolete) A place of lodging.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: Printed [by John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938 ↗, book II, canto IX:
      {...}} they spide a goodly castle, plast / Foreby a riuer in a pleasaunt dale, / Which choosing for that euenings hospitale, / They thither marcht {{...}
Synonyms Related terms Translations Adjective

hospital

  1. (obsolete) Hospitable.
    • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. In Six Volumes, volume (please specify ), London: Printed by A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 928184292 ↗:
      |||tr=|brackets=|subst=|lit=|nocat=1|footer=}}|}}
      At last the Ocean, that hospital friend to the wretched, opened her capacious arms to receive him; and he instantly resolved to accept her kind invitation.



This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.004
Offline English dictionary