"a name given to an association of ladies who collect and dispose of garments with the benevolent object of giving aid to necessitous families. Sometimes the ladies connected with a congregation unite to form a Dorcas society, in order to afford employment to poor needlewomen. Societies of this kind are so called from what is recorded in Acts 9:39 : ‘ And all the widows stood by him weeping, and showing the coats and garments which Dorcas made while she was with them.'"