WORKHOUSE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does workhouse mean? 

• WORKHOUSE (noun)
  The noun WORKHOUSE has 2 senses:

1. a poorhouse where able-bodied poor are compelled to labor

2. a county jail that holds prisoners for periods up to 18 months

  Familiarity information: WORKHOUSE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WORKHOUSE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A poorhouse where able-bodied poor are compelled to labor

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("workhouse" is a kind of...):

poorhouse (an establishment maintained at public expense in order to provide housing for the poor and homeless)

Domain region:

Britain; Great Britain; U.K.; UK; United Kingdom; United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (a monarchy in northwestern Europe occupying most of the British Isles; divided into England and Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland; 'Great Britain' is often used loosely to refer to the United Kingdom)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A county jail that holds prisoners for periods up to 18 months

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("workhouse" is a kind of...):

clink; gaol; jail; jailhouse; pokey; poky; slammer (a correctional institution used to detain persons who are in the lawful custody of the government (either accused persons awaiting trial or convicted persons serving a sentence))

 Context examples 

I would as soon have been charged with a pauper brat out of a workhouse: but he was weak, naturally weak.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“Six tea, two salt, and a pair of sugars, I have at different times borrowed money on, in secret, with my own hands. But the twins are a great tie; and to me, with my recollections, of papa and mama, these transactions are very painful. There are still a few trifles that we could part with. Mr. Micawber's feelings would never allow him to dispose of them; and Clickett”—this was the girl from the workhouse—“being of a vulgar mind, would take painful liberties if so much confidence was reposed in her.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The same lady pays for the education and clothing of an orphan from the workhouse, on condition that she shall aid the mistress in such menial offices connected with her own house and the school as her occupation of teaching will prevent her having time to discharge in person.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The Orfling and I stood looking vacantly at each other in the middle of the road, and then shook hands and said good-bye; she going back, I suppose, to St. Luke's workhouse, as I went to begin my weary day at Murdstone and Grinby's.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

And far better that crows and ravens—if any ravens there be in these regions—should pick my flesh from my bones, than that they should be prisoned in a workhouse coffin and moulder in a pauper's grave.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

These, and a dark-complexioned young woman, with a habit of snorting, who was servant to the family, and informed me, before half an hour had expired, that she was a Orfling, and came from St. Luke's workhouse, in the neighbourhood, completed the establishment.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)