lazaret

Noun

lazaret (plural lazarets)

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...1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter II, in Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 10
   • I woke the next morning in a lazaret, a long, high-ceilinged room where we, the sick, the injured, lay upon narrow beds.1980, Gene Wolfe, chapter XXVIII, in The Shadow of the Torturer (The Book of the New Sun; 1), New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 241
2. (also, figuratively, historical) A building such as a hospital, or occasionally a ship, used to isolate sick people to prevent the spread of infectious diseases; a quarantine.
   • The liver is the lazaret of bile, / But very rarely executes its function1819 July 15, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, canto II, (please specify the stanza number)
3. A place at the front of the tweendecks of a merchant ship where provisions are stored.