An island in the East River off the coast of central Manhattan Island. It was long the site of a penal institution and municipal hospital, which earned it the name Welfare Island after 1921. Renamed for Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1973, it is now largely residential.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.