Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A Scotch form of alms.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • He compassionates the poor, and would give the beggar an "awmous"; but measures which would prevent begging, which would place the means of a comfortable subsistence in hands of all men, so that there should be no poor, he apparently contemplates not without horror.

    Wordsworth, the _Lyrical Ballads_, and Literary and Social Reform in Nineteenth Century America 1999

  • They were just decent bien bodies; ony poor creature that had face to beg got an awmous, and welcome — they that were shamefaced gaed by, and twice as welcome.

    Chronicles of the Canongate 2008

  • I remember her well; —every week she paid my father a visit for her awmous, when I was a little boy, and I looked upon Madge with no common degree of awe and terror.

    Introduction to Guy Mannering (1829) 1917

  • —‘Many’s the awmous your house has gi’en Meg and hers—and she has lived to pay it back in a small degree; ’—and she placed the purse in his hand.

    Chapter XXVIII 1917

  • The farmer’s dame lacked her usual share of intelligence, —perhaps also the self-applause, which she had felt while distributing the awmous (alms) in shape of a gowpen (handful) of oatmeal to the mendicant who brought the news.

    Chapter VI 1917

  • Wilson for an awmous, streeking out her auld hand for charity.

    The House with the Green Shutters George Douglas Brown 1885

  • Forbye, here they say that a man who prays and gies awmous, and keeps frae wine, is sicker to win to Paradise and a 'the houris.

    A Modern Telemachus Charlotte Mary Yonge 1862

  • I'll gae down with Saunders Mucklebackit --- he has aye a soup o 'something comfortable about his begging --- and, bairns, I'll maybe live to put ilka ane o' ye in mind some ither night that ye hae promised me quarters and my awmous; '' and away he went with the fisherman.

    The Antiquary 1845

  • ` ` I thank ye for your awmous, '' said Ochiltree, pocketing the piece of money; ` ` but I beg your pardon, Mr. Taffril --- I canna gang your errand e'en now. ''

    The Antiquary 1845

  • A lodging, such as it was, was readily granted to them in some of the out-houses, and the usual awmous (alms) of a handful of meal

    The Antiquary 1845

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