workhousen.
/ˈwəːkhaʊs/, U.S. /ˈwərkˌhaʊs/ 1.
a. A building or room in which work is carried out, esp. one in which things are made or manufactured; a workshop or factory. Now rare (chiefly historical).
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > workplace > workshop > [noun]
workhouseOE
officinec1425
shopc1450
working-house1474
working place?1505
frame housea1555
workshop1556
framing house1559
working-shop1566
shophouse1567
frame building1574
operatory1651
shopping1684
officina1832
atelier1882
craft shop1896
skunk works1960
OE Antwerp-London Gloss. (2011) 125 Officina, smiþðe uel weorchus.
OE Antwerp-London Gloss. (2011) 127 Ergasterium uel operatorium, weorchus.
1245 in Trans. Bristol & Gloucs. Archaeol. Soc. (1936) 58 241 Quod medietas illius domus que vocatur Werchus' amoueatur.
1350 in H. T. Riley Memorials London (1868) 262 [In the] werkhous..[12,000 of] plaunchenail..[3000 of] dornail.
a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1879) VII. 307 Þe werkhous þere þey dooþ here werkes.
1431–40 in J. L. Glasscock Rec. St. Michael's, Bishop's Stortford (1882) 6 Le Werkhous latomorum juxta cimiterium.
1497 in M. Oppenheim Naval Accts. & Inventories Henry VII (1896) 324 The Grounde wher as the seid Ship was made & the Workehouse Belongyng to the same.
1548 N. Udall et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. I. Acts i. f. vv For shoppes, or worke houses are wonte to occupye the lower partes of houses.
1575 in H. R. Plomer Abstr. Wills Eng. Printers (1903) 23 My workehowse of printing.
1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World I. iii. vi. 61 The worke houses and furnaces of potters.
1697 London Gaz. No. 3260/3 There were taken with him several Pairs of Stockins wet, as if they had been taken out of a Dyers Work-House.
1752 D. Hume Polit. Disc. x. 223 His work-house, of 20 cabinet makers, is said to be a very considerable manufactory.
1771 T. Nugent tr. B. Cellini Life II. iv. iv. 226 The first thing I cast in bronze, was the great head of his excellency in my workhouse.
a1850 M. F. Ossoli At Home & Abroad (1860) xxix. 375 He must have..his workhouse or studio, his marbles and colors.
1881 S. R. Macphail Relig. House Pluscardyn 7 The court by which we first entered is occupied with stables and work-houses.
1978 R. P. Warren Let 13 Aug. in Sel. Lett. (2011) V. 431 She spends more and more time alone in her work house with her big black crayons—and it seems that she has a book near done.
2000 E. L. Ayers et al. Amer. Passages vii. 233/1 The ‘factories’ had consisted of workhouses, in which large numbers of impoverished widows produced thread and yarn at traditional spinning wheels.
b. figurative. Cf. workshop n. 1b. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > creation > [noun] > place of production or creation
shop1517
workhouse?1533
workshop1561
childbed1568
factory1618
laboratory1654
elaboratory1667
hotbed1693
mill1771
?1533 tr. Erasmus Serm. f. 3 That holy spyryte,..whiche made her vntouchyd wombe the workehouse [L. officinam] of that wonderful byrthe.
1581 R. Mulcaster Positions vi. 48 The liuer..the workhouse of thicke & grosse blood.
1645 S. Rutherford Tryal & Triumph of Faith xvi. 125 Christ, being the very worke-house, and shop of the Devil, in which he wrought.
1684 tr. T. Bonet Guide Pract. Physician iii. 112/2 The Heart is the Workhouse of life and heat.
1742 W. Guthrie tr. Cicero De Oratore ii. xiii. 152 Two Men of great Genius, bred in what we may call the noblest Work-house of Eloquence.
1749 W. Law Spirit of Prayer i. ii. 89 The Works of the Devil are all wrought in Self, it is his peculiar Workhouse.
1854 H. D. Thoreau Walden 36 England..is the great workhouse of the world.
1905 W. Campbell Poems 54 In this last high poise of a stair, Built out of the quarries of thought, Wrought slow in the workhouse of truth.
2008 W. I. Robinson Lat. Amer. & Global Capitalism iv. 200 As Latin America has globalized it has increased its supply of raw materials to the workhouse of the world [sc. China].
2.
a. A prison or house of correction in which inmates are put to work, esp. (in later use) one used to incarcerate people convicted of minor offences. Chiefly North American in later use.In early use inmates could include the poor or unemployed as well as criminals (see, for example, quots. 1580, 1653): see note at sense 2b.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > punishment > imprisonment > prison > [noun] > reformatory prison
workhouse?c1475
house of correction1575
bridewell1583
work-jail1619
correction-housec1625
rasp house1651
bettering house1735
bettering mansion1740
penitentiary house1779
penitentiary1807
work farm1835
farm1857
pen1881
prison-industrial complex1965
?c1475 Catholicon Anglicum (BL Add. 15562) f. 135v A Warkehowse, argastulum.
1580 J. Stow Chrons. of Eng. 1057 The Kings Maiestie gaue to him for to be a worke house for the poore and ydle persons of the Citie of London, his Palace of Bridewel.
1646 Stanleyes Remedy 2 To reforme these three grand sins of this Kingdome, he saith will be very easie if his Majestie will ordaine houses of correction, or work-houses in everie County.
1653 in Rec. Early Hist. Boston (1886) X. 26 The setting up of a Bridewell or Workehouse for Prisoners Malefactors &..poore people.
1772 A. G. Winslow Diary 25 Feb. (1895) 36 She..soon got into the workhouse for new misdemeanours.
1846 Floridian 28 Mar. Got tak up the first week, accused of larceny... Sent to the Work-House.
1872 ‘M. Twain’ Sketches 283 Eggs..so unwholesome that the city physician seldom or never orders them for the workhouse.
1916 Washington Univ. Stud. 3 295 More than one fourth of those convicted of drunkenness were sent to the workhouse to pay off their fines at the rate of fifty cents a day by pounding rocks in the quarry.
1964 Federal Probation Dec. 8/2 The Workhouse receives and releases the work-release prisoner any time during the day or night, depending on his working hours.
2002 Washington Post (Nexis) 22 Oct. d2 If convicted, Puckett probably would be put on probation and given less than a year in the county workhouse.
b. In Britain and Ireland: (in early use) an establishment providing paid work for the unemployed poor of a parish; (later) a public institution in which the destitute of one or more parishes receive poor relief in the form of board and lodging, with able-bodied inmates typically being obliged to work in exchange. Cf. earlier house of work (see quot. 1552 at house n.1 4a), poorhouse n. 1, and working-house n. 2. Now historical.This sense is distinguished in early use from sense 2a in being concerned only with the poor or unemployed, although prior to the 18th cent. little distinction was made in practice between the two senses, and sometimes the same building served as both a house of correction for criminals and a workhouse for the poor (see quot. 1652).Under the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, poor relief was to be administered exclusively by parish union workhouses (cf. union n.2 15a), which were typically characterized by inhumane treatment of inmates and poor living and working conditions. The last institutions were closed in 1948.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social attitudes > philanthropy > [noun] > poor-relief > workhouse for poor
workhouse1631
house of industry1679
bastille1835
great house1838
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > dwelling place or abode > institutional homes > [noun] > for the poor, infirm, etc. > workhouse
working-house1597
workhouse1631
house of industry1679
spin-house1702
parish house1709
poorhouse1727
poorshouse1732
house?1825
union workhouse1830
union house1835
pauper asylum1837
great house1838
union1839
big house1851
spiniken1859
spike1866
lump1874
1631 in E. M. Leonard Early Hist. Eng. Poor Relief (1900) xi. 226 Wee haue erected wthin our borough a workehouse to sett poore people to worke.
1652 in W. Cotton & H. Woollcombe Gleanings Munic. Rec. Exeter (1877) 156 The said house to bee converted for a workhouse for the poore of this cittye and also a house of correction for the vagrant and disorderly people within this cittye.
1731 Flying Post 12 Aug. 2/2 His Mother, who was maintain'd by his Labour, being come upon the Parish, is sent to the Work-house at Wandsworth.
1782 Act 22 Geo. III c. 83 §18 The several Poor Houses or Workhouses to be built..under the Authority of this Act, shall be situate within the Parish or Township for which they shall be used.
1836 C. Dickens Sketches by Boz 2nd Ser. 333 He believed he'd been born in the vurkis, but he'd never know'd his father.
1856 R. W. Emerson Eng. Traits x. 161 Hargreaves invented the spinning-jenny, and died in a workhouse.
1860 C. L. Balfour Toil & Trust viii. 67 The shame, and ruin, and misery, which she had seen young girls reduced to in the Workhouse.
1875 Irish Monthly 3 575 The poor have so great a horror of the workhouse that they often leave their own name behind, and assume a fictitious one wherewith to present themselves before the guardians.
1922 J. J. Clarke Social Admin. 83 The work~house or institution is the representative institution of the Union, and is the foundation of all indoor relief.
1967 R. G. Hodgkinson Origins National Health Service xv. 582 The Poor Law institutions were entirely unsuited to minister to the special wants of the mentally unstable... Many could have been trained in an asylum to perform useful work, whereas in the workhouses they were just neglected.
2001 L. Mitton Victorian Hosp. 29 In 1929 local authorities took over the workhouses, and the Poor Law hospitals were turned into municipal hospitals for the general public, not just the poor.
c. figurative and in figurative contexts. Now rare.
ΚΠ
1639 T. Fuller Hist. Holy Warre iv. ix. 183 In stead therefore of giving them a house, he sent them to a work-house..For he bestowed on them all the lands which the Christians held in Palestine.
1690 C. Ness Compl. Hist. & Myst. Old & New Test. I. 58 Through Adams fall the world was become a work-house, an house of correction for mans sin.
a1796 R. Burns Poetry (1896) II. 68 Who called her verse a Parish Workhouse, made For motley foundling Fancies, stolen or strayed?
1847 H. Bliss Cicero ii. i. 72 This lonely prison of the mind, This caverned forge, this workhouse of mankind.
1929 D. H. Lawrence Pansies 109 The young to-day are prisoners, poor things, and they know it. Born in a universal workhouse, and they feel it.
Compounds
C1.
a. General attributive.
(a) In sense 1, as workhouse forge, workhouse stable, etc. Now historical and rare.
ΚΠ
1569 in J. Raine Wills & Inventories Archdeaconry Richmond (1853) 218 In the warkhouse stable.
1603 H. Crosse Vertues Common-wealth sig. R This grand-traitor to mans happinesse, as in a worke-house forge, or common shoppe, dooth stampe and coine a multitude of euils.
a1749 W. Ged Biogr. Mem. (1781) i. 19 He and his brother impudently broke open my work-house-door, and finding the material part of my tools gone, applied to trades-men in the place.
1931 A. P. Wadsworth in A. P. Wadsworth & J. de L. Mann Cotton Trade & Industr. Lancs. v. 108 In the workhouse manufactures of the late seventeenth century,..the idea of labour discipline within the shop had been firmly grasped.
(b) In sense 2b, as workhouse brat, workhouse inmate, workhouse master, workhouse system, etc. Now historical.
ΚΠ
1735 R. Savage Progress of Divine 14 Now with Churchwardens cribs the rev'rend Thief, From workhouse Pittance, and collection Brief.
1738 Enq. Causes Encrease Poor 9 The Favourers of the Work-house Scheme.
1834 E. Lytton Bulwer in Parl. Deb. 3rd Ser. 22 891 In those states [of America] where a strict workhouse discipline was kept up.
1838 C. Dickens Oliver Twist I. v. 70 Then I'll whop yer when I get in,..my work'us brat!
1857 G. Borrow Romany Rye II. xi. 181 He would rob..a workhouse child of its breakfast, as the saying is.
1867 Westm. Rev. Jan. 72/1 Can it be supposed that we shall remodel our whole workhouse system, whatever theory we take of the right to relief?
1894 J. F. Oakeshott Humanizing of Poor Law 26 Nearly one-third of the workhouse inmates are sixty-five years old or over.
1902 Daily Chron. 8 May 6/2 Educated and medically-trained women as workhouse inspectors.
1925 J. J. Clarke Local Govt. 316 Workhouse infirmaries.
2007 Independent 10 Apr. 33/1 Don Ernsting was one of the last ‘workhouse masters’ and an innovator in the care of old people.
b. Forming locative and objective adjectives in sense 2b with participial adjectives, as workhouse-bred, workhouse-clearing, etc.
ΚΠ
1810 G. Crabbe Borough xxii. 301 Workhouse-clearing Men, Who, undisturb'd by Feelings just or kind, Would Parish-Boys to needy Tradesmen bind.
1859 H. Kingsley Recoll. G. Hamlyn III. ix. 172 Base-born, workhouse-bred!
1905 Jrnl. Royal Sanitary Inst. 26 60 It is quite possible to select the workhouse-reared children in the ordinary elementary school.
1919 Edinb. Rev. Oct. 310 The workhouse-born girl would not ally her lot with his.
2009 D. Waller Magnificent Mrs Tennant i. 4 The workhouse-raised, illegitimate son of a Welsh barmaid.
C2.
workhouse cough n. rare a bad cough suggestive of the poor health widely associated with parish workhouses.
ΚΠ
1890 A. Conan Doyle Sign of Four ix. 196 You would have made an actor, and a rare one. You had the proper workhouse cough.
2012 Racing Post (Nexis) 5 Feb. 10 A longsuffering newspaper seller unleashes a hacking, workhouse cough that might have been part of the Charles Dickens bicentennial celebrations.
workhouse-fever n. now historical typhus; cf. jail-fever n.
ΚΠ
1741 Ess. Present Epidemic Fever 17 Our Jayl, Bridewell and Work-house Fevers, of late so mortal.
1891 C. Creighton Hist. Epidemics Brit. 538 There was no gaol-fever, workhouse-fever, or domestic typhus in general.
1983 Jrnl. Soc. Hist. 17 14 The lice-born bacterium.., known in one place as road-fever, in another as workhouse-fever.
workhouse sheeting n. now rare strong twilled unbleached cotton cloth, used for curtains, sheeting, etc.; = Bolton sheeting n. at Bolton n. b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > textile fabric or an article of textile fabric > textile fabric > textile fabric made from specific material > cotton > [noun] > twilled
hickory1750
satin jean1812
beaverteen1827
blue jean1857
denim1864
workhouse sheeting1875
Bolton sheeting1880
Turkey twill1904
regatta1910
chino1943
regatta fabric1962
Bolton twill1967
1875 L. Troubridge Jrnl. in Life amongst Troubridges (1966) 116 A Workhouse sheeting jacket, body and tablier..to wear with dark blue frilled petticoat and sleeves.
1880 L. Higgin Handbk. Embroidery ii. 12 (heading) Bolton, or workhouse sheeting, is a coarse twilled cotton fabric, seventy-two inches wide, of a beautiful soft creamy colour.
1906 H. Matthias & P. Smith Mod. Carnation iv. 55 A stage in a fairly sheltered place covered by a light frame work, over which workhouse sheeting has been stretched answers fairly well.
workhouse test n. now historical the restriction of poor relief to inmates of parish workhouses, considered as a means of ensuring that only those in genuine need would apply for relief.Particularly associated with the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834; see note at Poor Law n.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social attitudes > philanthropy > [noun] > poor-relief > workhouse for poor > test given to applicant for
workhouse test1835
1835 Bury & Norwich Post 23 Dec. The workhouse test should first be applied to the single men and women.
1906 A. Shadwell Industr. Efficiency II. xv. 353 The separation of the really needy from the merely idle by the workhouse test.
2010 Guardian Unlimited (Nexis) 2 Sept. You can manipulate the scale of problems by the severity of the eligibility tests you apply. The Victorians did this with the notorious 'workhouse test'.
Derivatives
ˈworkhoused adj. now historical and rare inhabiting or taking place in a workhouse (sense 2b); (in quot. 1895) habituated to life in a workhouse.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabiting a type of place > [adjective] > inhabiting workhouse
workhoused1837
the mind > possession > poverty > [adjective] > poor > poor and receiving relief > in workhouse
workhoused1837
indoor1864
1837 New Monthly Mag. 51 115 Poor, workhoused wretches.
1895 in H. Begbie Life W. Booth (1920) II. 204 The parishes can send people to us before they have become workhoused.
2000 T. Skillen in J. Haldane Philos. & Public Affairs 129 The mainly teenage vagrants who failed in their workhoused labours were subject to confinement in a cellar.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2014; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.OE