sweatshop

American  

[swet-shop] / ˈswɛtˌʃɒp /

noun

1. a shop, small factory, or other workplace employing workers at low wages, for long hours, and under poor conditions.

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sweatshop British  

/ ˈswɛtˌʃɒp /

noun

1. a workshop where employees work long hours under bad conditions for low wages

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sweatshop Cultural  

1. A small factory or shop in which employees are poorly paid and work under adverse conditions. Sweatshops were especially common in the garment industry during the early twentieth century.

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Etymology

Origin of sweatshop

First recorded in 1865–70; sweat + shop

Example Sentences

Both leaders had famously tough childhoods -- Lee worked in a sweatshop to support his family, while Lula dropped out of school to sell peanuts and shine shoes.

From Barron's

Both leaders famously clawed their way to the top from unlikely beginnings -- Lee worked in a sweatshop to support his family, while Lula dropped out of school to sell peanuts and shine shoes.

From Barron's

From upstairs wafted the smell of fresh paint; from downstairs, the site of the lone toilet, came the sounds of a sweatshop.

From Literature

Zookeepers “may as well live and die surrounded by animals than in a sweatshop or war zone, right?”

From Los Angeles Times

Franklin Roosevelt aptly referred to it as “this ancient atrocity” in 1933, when he signed a textile industry code that outlawed the employment of children younger than 16 in sweatshops.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• branch
• cooperative
• firm
• industry
• laboratory
• mill
• shop
• workshop