Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Workhouses"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Workhouse \Work"house`\, n.; pl. {Workhouses}. [AS. weorch?s.]
1. A house where any manufacture is carried on; a workshop.
2. A house in which idle and vicious persons are confined to
labor.
3. A house where the town poor are maintained at public
expense, and provided with labor; a poorhouse.
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