sweatshop

noun

sweat·​shop ˈswet-ˌshäp How to pronounce sweatshop (audio)
: a shop or factory in which employees work for long hours at low wages and under unhealthy conditions

Examples of sweatshop in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
The result will be an increase in preying on immigrants by the criminal element: robbery, protection scams, sweatshop labor and human trafficking, as the immigrant community withdraws from reliance on no-longer-safe court systems. Reader Commentary, Baltimore Sun, 4 July 2025 Make basic tees cool again by paying his employees (most of whom were immigrants) double the minimum wage and avoiding outsourcing manufacturing to sweatshops. Emily Blackwood, People.com, 3 July 2025 Yet, its dialogue, which ranges from the laughably stereotypical to the downright absurd in the context of a sweatshop, stands out as the most unforgivable affront. Carlos Aguilar, Variety, 30 Aug. 2024 An entire modern artistic genre — documentary photography — was weaned on the growing social effort to rein in the abusive practice of forcing children to toil in sweatshops and on farms in the wake of the Gilded Age. Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times, 5 May 2025 See All Example Sentences for sweatshop

Word History

First Known Use

1884, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of sweatshop was in 1884

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Cite this Entry

“Sweatshop.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sweatshop. Accessed 14 Jul. 2025.

Kids Definition

sweatshop

noun
sweat·​shop -ˌshäp How to pronounce sweatshop (audio)
: a shop or factory in which employees work long hours at low wages under unhealthy conditions

More from Merriam-Webster on sweatshop

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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