Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913
Workhouse
Work′house′ (·hous′), n.; pl. Workhouses (#). [AS. weorchūs.]
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.