workhouse
noun, verb
Forms workhouses workhousing workhoused work house
- noun (UK, historical) An institution for homeless poor people funded by the local parish, where the able-bodied were required to work.
- noun (US) A prison in which the sentence includes manual labour.
- noun (archaic) A place of manufacture; a factory.
- verb (UK, transitive, historical) To place (a person) in the workhouse (institution for the poor).
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English werkhous, from Old English weorchūs (“workshop, place of manufacture”), from Proto-Germanic *werkahūsą, equivalent to work + house.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A house where any manufacture is carried on; a workshop.
- noun A house in which idle and vicious persons are confined to labor.
Etymology [AS. weorch.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “workhouse”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details