workhouse
Americannoun
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workhouses
plural
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a house of correction.
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British. (formerly) a poorhouse in which paupers were given work.
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Obsolete. a workshop.
noun
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(formerly in England) an institution maintained at public expense where able-bodied paupers did unpaid work in return for food and accommodation
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(in the US) a prison for petty offenders serving short sentences at manual labour
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of workhouse
before 1100; Middle English werkhous, Old English weorchūs workshop. See work, house
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Charlie has transcended a workhouse childhood to become a person of some culture—his favorite novelist is, ironically enough, that bard of extreme poverty, Charles Dickens.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
That Tomás, who has already survived the Great Hunger as well as a cruel workhouse, isn’t already a lunatic is perhaps less fantastical than the plot itself at times.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 30, 2026
The workhouse closed in 1948 and has since been demolished.
From BBC ● Mar. 2, 2025
The answer is simple: It’s a workhouse and is needed,” Mr Loranger said.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 29, 2023
Railroad Tommy had given him a janitor’s job to save him from the poorhouse, workhouse, or nuthouse, one.
From "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison
The panel has also been investigating the "pathways and practices" to the institutions, laundries and workhouses.
From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2026
An apology is also expected in Northern Ireland but not until after a public inquiry has been carried out, following a recommendation from a 2021 report on mother and baby institutions, Magdalene laundries and workhouses.
From Barron's ● Jul. 2, 2026
The children came from parish workhouses, some orphans, some just abandoned, and they lived in a dormitory next to the mill and served as “apprentices,” working 70-hour weeks in a Dickensian life of indentured servitude.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 1, 2022
The Anatomy Act 1832 sought to quell grave robbing and the outcry by establishing a new legal source of bodies; the unclaimed from workhouses, hospitals and prisons, as well as by making body donation legal.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 7, 2022
Erasmus and his circle debated the Poor Laws, which were shunting the destitute into workhouses; they discussed the need for social reform.
From "Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith" by Deborah Heiligman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
