Workhouse
['wɜːkhaʊs] or ['wɝk'haʊs]
Definition
(noun.) a county jail that holds prisoners for periods up to 18 months.
(noun.) a poorhouse where able-bodied poor are compelled to labor.
Checker: Mimi--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) A house where any manufacture is carried on; a workshop.
(n.) A house in which idle and vicious persons are confined to labor.
(n.) A house where the town poor are maintained at public expense, and provided with labor; a poorhouse.
Typed by Carolyn
Unserious Contents or Definition
To dream that you are in a workhouse denotes that some event will work you harm and loss. See Prison.
Edited by Harold
Examples
- There was no time to be lost, she must go to the workhouse. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- Mr. Bumble emerged at early morning from the workhouse-gate, and walked with portly carriage and commanding steps, up the High Street. Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist.
- The scene, the workhouse. Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist.
- No more than two months ago, I was not only my own master, but everybody else's, so far as the porochial workhouse was concerned, and now! Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist.
- In the workhouse of this town,' was the sullen reply. Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist.
- Conscious of his own innocence, he did not endeavour to hide himself when the door of the workhouse, his sanctuary, was breaking open. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- Patiently to earn a spare bare living, and quietly to die, untouched by workhouse hands--this was her highest sublunary hope. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- Why it might have been in the workhouse. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- Master of the workhouse, young man! Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist.
- When the two trades can be carried on in the same workhouse, the loss of time is, no doubt, much less. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- Sam Miles had been caught poaching, and Peter Bailey had gone to the workhouse at last. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- I would as soon have been charged with a pauper brat out of a workhouse: but he was weak, naturally weak. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- The hungry and destitute situation of the infant orphan was duly reported by the workhouse authorities to the parish authorities. Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist.
- My dear,' said Mr. Sowerberry, deferentially, 'this is the boy from the workhouse that I told you of. Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist.
- He also requested, as a last act of friendship, that I would see his family to the Parish Workhouse, and forget that such a Being ever lived. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
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