sweatshop

[ swet-shop ]

noun

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

sweatshop

/ ˈswɛtˌʃɒp /

noun

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

sweatshop

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.

Word History and Origins

Origin of sweatshop¹

First recorded in 1865–70; sweat + shop

Example Sentences

She also worked as a child laborer in a sweatshop, putting zippers together.

From MIT Technology Review

When I spoke to her last year, she had compared Coupang’s warehouses to the infamous sweatshops in 1970s South Korea.

From MIT Technology Review

Following the tragedy, American Apparel CEO Dov Charney spoke out against overseas, sweatshop production.

From The Daily Beast

The dreary couch gag depicts a hellish sweatshop dedicated to manufacturing Simpsons merchandise.

From The Daily Beast

A man works in a sweatshop, and has only a little time for self-improvement, and will I tell him what books he ought to read?

From Project Gutenberg

The sweatshop, child-labor, excessive hours for women, were attacked with considerable effect.

From Project Gutenberg

After a disheartening period of working in the sweatshop he saw an opportunity to start in business for himself.

From Project Gutenberg

Says his father's dead and mother earns seventeen a week in a sweatshop and sends him to school.

From Project Gutenberg

As long as women buy the cheap kind made at the sacrifice of human life, this sweatshop system will continue.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

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