\Hos"pi*tal*er\, n. [Written also {hospitaller}.] [F.
hospitalier. See {Hospital}, and cf. {Hostler}.]
1. One residing in a hospital, for the purpose of receiving
   the poor, the sick, and strangers.
2. One of an order of knights who built a hospital at
   Jerusalem for pilgrims, A. D. 1042. They were called
   Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, and after the removal of
   the order to Malta, Knights of Malta.