workhouse

American  

[wurk-hous] / ˈwɜrkˌhaʊs /

noun

PLURAL

workhouses

1. a house of correction.

2. British.  (formerly) a poorhouse in which paupers were given work.

3. Obsolete.  a workshop.

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workhouse British  

/ ˈwɜːkˌhaʊs /

noun

1. (formerly in England) an institution maintained at public expense where able-bodied paupers did unpaid work in return for food and accommodation

2. (in the US) a prison for petty offenders serving short sentences at manual labour

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Etymology

Origin of workhouse

before 1100; Middle English werkhous, Old English weorchūs workshop. See work, house

Example Sentences

It reminds one of how Charles Dickens, in response to Britain’s 19th-century Poor Law, an amendment to earlier poor laws, that required the poor to live in purposely unpleasant workhouses, wrote “Oliver Twist.”

From Salon

In Northern Ireland, there were also three Magdalene Laundries – in effect, workhouses where women and girls were made to carry out demanding duties.

From BBC

Once released from prison, she emigrated to New York where in 1902 there is a record of her being placed in a workhouse as punishment for vagrancy.

From BBC

In the late 1840s, the ground in south Belfast was used to bury poor people from a nearby workhouse.

From BBC

"I've never experienced anything like that in my life. It was like a Victorian workhouse. The nurses were saying how bad it is, and they were saying they just had to crack on with it."

From BBC