Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word
workhouse. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
workhouse, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
workhouse in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
workhouse you have here. The definition of the word
workhouse will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
workhouse, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
work + house
Noun
workhouse (plural workhouses)
- (British, historical) An institution for homeless poor people funded by the local parish, where the able-bodied were required to work.
- Synonyms: (Britain, derogatory) bastille, poorhouse
1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], chapter I, in Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. , volumes (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, , →OCLC:Among other public buildings in a certain town which for many reasons it will be prudent to refrain from mentioning, and to which I will assign no fictitious name, it boasts of one which is common to most towns, great or small, to wit, a workhouse; and in this workhouse was born, […] the item of mortality whose name is prefixed to the head of this chapter.
1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter II, in The Squire’s Daughter, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published 1919, →OCLC:"I don't want to spoil any comparison you are going to make," said Jim, "but I was at Winchester and New College." / "That will do," said Mackenzie. "I was dragged up at the workhouse school till I was twelve. […]"
- (US) A prison in which the sentence includes manual labour.
- (archaic) A place of manufacture; a factory.
1895, Will H. Glascock, Stories of Columbia, page 190:He carefully guarded his secret, but it got out, and, when he had his invention almost completed, some men broke open his workhouse and carried it away. It was afterward returned, but his plan had been copied, and from the copy many machines were made.
Translations
prison where the sentence includes manual labour
See also
Verb
workhouse (third-person singular simple present workhouses, present participle workhousing, simple past and past participle workhoused)
- (British, transitive, historical) To place (a person) in the workhouse (institution for the poor).
Anagrams