sweatshop

noun sweat·shop \ ˈswet-ˌshäp \

Updated on: 16 May 2018

Definition of sweatshop

: a shop or factory in which employees work for long hours at low wages and under unhealthy conditions

See sweatshop defined for English-language learners

Recent Examples of sweatshop from the Web

Over the past three years, America’s information ecosystem has proven easy pickings for anyone with a fistful of VPN connections and a sweatshop of kids playing World of Trollcraft.

— virginia heffernan, WIRED, "Social Media Makes Us Soldiers in the War Against Ourselves," 2 May 2018
By the 1950s, these warehouses were mostly being used for storage or sweatshops, and the neighborhood, increasingly decrepit, earned the nickname Hell’s Hundred Acres.

— New York Times, "The Last Artists of SoHo (and TriBeCa)," 17 Apr. 2018
The year is 2002 and former lobbyist Soussan (an earnest Theo James) is searching for something more meaningful than tax shelters, sweatshops and ozone holes.

— michael rechtshaffen, latimes.com, "U.N. intrigue and corruption in 'Backstabbing for Beginners'," 26 Apr. 2018
According to Business Insider, the factory’s young, predominantly female workers toiled for 56 hours a week making clothing in sweatshop conditions for minuscule wages (their typical take-home pay was $15 per week, according to CBS News).

— kim kelly, Teen Vogue, "Demonstrators Remembered the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire," 26 Mar. 2018
In stores the fakes are often mixed in with genuine pieces but sold at a discount, forcing jewelers who painstakingly craft each piece by hand to compete with counterfeits produced in sweatshops.

— National Geographic, "Biggest Fake Native American Art Conspiracy Revealed," 15 Mar. 2018
Paying attention to the politics of pop culture aligns with a broader interest in ethical consumption — of sweatshop-free T-shirts, of free-range eggs.

— molly fischer, The Cut, "The Great Awokening," 10 Jan. 2018
Her mother worked in New York City sweatshops, where her duties included sewing beads on ladies’ purses.

— james r. hagerty, WSJ, "Portland’s Vera Katz Was a Jackie Robinson of Politics," 22 Dec. 2017
God bless these child actors talking about feminazis and sweatshops.

— luke darby, GQ, "SNL Taps Into the Horror of Talking to Kids About the News," 10 Dec. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'sweatshop.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.