sweatshop

American  

[swet-shop] / ˈswɛtˌʃɒp /

noun

sweatshops plural

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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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• sweatshops
  plural

Etymology

Origin of sweatshop

First recorded in 1865–70; sweat + shop

Explanation

A sweatshop is a factory where workers are exploited and not allowed to unionize. You might not sweat in a sweatshop, but you probably work hard and under lousy conditions. In a sweatshop, workers slave away in poor conditions for low pay. Sweatshop workers — who often make clothing — aren't allowed to form unions, so they cannot protest their poor working conditions. In repressive countries that aren't looking out for their citizens, you're more likely to find sweatshops. An American corporation that uses sweatshops overseas could find itself in a lot of trouble.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sweatshop sweatshops

The fashion-magazine moment is long gone as Miranda deals with such alarming new trends as budget cuts, the imperative to cram her vision into annoying little video clips, and consumer sensitivity to sweatshop manufacturing.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026

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 ● Feb. 23, 2026

They lived for a while in Harlem while his mother worked in a sweatshop and got by with the help of food stamps.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 15, 2024

Rainmaker Hall is the central meeting space, created inside an old hangar that was once a sweatshop with high, arching beams.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 26, 2023

The original sweatshop has been preserv ed for posterity at Lew Pants.

From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole

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 ● May 2, 2025

They lost control over immigration after a series of scandals over sweatshops — clothing companies that came in to make “Made in U.S.A.”-labeled clothes but paid workers pennies.

From New York Times ● Jul. 7, 2023

Major MNCs like Nike, Gap, Forever 21, Walmart, Victoria’s Secret, and others have been harshly criticized for using sweatshops to produce their shoes and clothing lines.

From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022

I got to see inside the sweatshop furniture industry and this whole new industrial economy of Los Angeles based on sweatshops.

From Salon ● Nov. 6, 2022

“You’ll find work down in the sweatshops, will you now?”

From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros

Related Words

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