lazaret

Etymology

Borrowed from French lazaret, from Italian lazzareto (archaic), lazzaretto, lazzeretto; see further at lazaretto. Doublet of lazaretto.

noun

1. Synonym of lazaretto
   1. (historical) A place reserved for people with infectious diseases (especially leprosy or plague) to live on a long-term basis.
      But the civilising was so complete that the survivors of the original inhabitants numbered seven, of whom two were dying of consumption in the Native Compound, three confined in the Native Lazaret with leprosy, the rest, a man and a woman, living in a gunyah at the remote end of Devilfish Bay, subsisting on what food they could get from the bush and the sea and what they could buy with the pennies the man earned by doing odd jobs and the woman by prostitution. 1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter II, in Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 10
      The director was locked up in the same institution with his patients, and the institution was equally cut off, isolated on the outskirts of the city like an ancient lazaret with its lepers. 1989, Carl Jung et al., translated by Richard Winston et al., Memories, Dreams, Reflections, page 108
   2. (historical, also figurative) A building such as a hospital, or occasionally a ship, used to isolate sick people to prevent the spread of infectious diseases; a quarantine.
   3. (nautical) A place at the front of the tweendecks of a merchant ship where provisions are stored.