workhouse (werk hous)

[ Pro to genes... had his workhouse in a garden out of town. Dryden, Obs, on Dufresnoy's Art of Painting. But, indeed, that which most surprised me in the Louvre was the Attellier or Work - house of Monsieur Gerardon: he that made Cardinal Richelieu's Tomb, and the Statua Equestris designed for the Place de Vendosme. Lister, Journey to Paris, p. 43. 2. A house in which able-bodied paupers are compelled to work; a poorhouse. Under the old poor-laws of England there was a workhouse in each parish, partaking of the character of a bridewell, where indigent, vagrant, and idle people were set to work, and supplied with food and clothing, or what is termed indoor relief. Some workhouses were used as places of confine ment for rogues and vagabonds, who were there confined and compelled to labor; whilst others were large almshouses for the maintenance and support of the poor. In the United States the workhouses or poorhouses are sometimes under the charge of the county, sometimes under that of the town or township. Our Laws have wisely Work - houses Thei ben square and poynted of here owne kynde, bot he aboven and bene then, with outen worchinge of mannes hond. Mandeville , Travels, p. 158. For mankind they say a Woman was made first, which forth children. Quoted in Capt . John Smith's Works, I. 95. The working of my own mind is the general entertainment of my life. Steele , Spectator, No. 4. The proposition does not strike one; on the contrary, it seems to run opposite to the natural workings of causes and effects. Sterne , Tristram Shandy, viii. 5. The head which owns this bounteous fall of hazel curls is an excellent little thinking machine, most accurate in its working . Charlotte Brontë , Shirley, xxxv. 2. Method of operation; doing. Al his werking nas but fraude and deceit. Chaucer , Canon's Yeoman's Tale, 1. 356. 3. Fermentation: as, the working of yeast.4. pl. The parts of a mine, quarry, or openwork in which, or near which, mining or quarwhich rying is actually being carried on. The abandoned portions of a mine are generally designated as "old workings," and in Cornwall as the "old man." The men hurried from different parts of the workings to be out of the way of an impending blast. Geikie, Geol. Sketches, i. Close to the mouth of the Kennet, gravel has been extracted for many years, as shown by the old workings . Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc., XLVI. 590. 5. The proce which goes on in water when it blo oms. See work, v. i., 8. - Batch-working, in teleg., a system of working in which every station in turn sends several (usually five or more) me ages at a time, before giving place to another station. - Closed-circuit working, that method of operating telegraph-lines in which the battery-circuit is always closed throughout the line, except when broken by the operation of the sending key during the transmi ion of me ages. - Double-current working. See double. - Line-current working, that method of operation in which the receiving instruments on a telegraph-circuit are worked directly, without the intervention of a relay. - Open-circuit working, that method of operating a telegraph-circuit in which the battery is not in contact with the line between me ages.Open working. Same as openwork, 3. - Single working, in teleg., the sending of me ages in one direction only at one time.-Up-and-down working, on a telegraph-circuit, the transmi ion of me ages alternately between stations at the opposite ends of a line. working (wer'king), p. a. [Ppr. of work, v.] 1. Active; busy. I know not her intent; but this I know, He has a working brain, is minister To all my lady's counsels. Ford, Love's Sacrifice, iii. 2. He was of a middle stature; strong sett; curled haire; a very working head, in so much that, walking and meditating before dinner, he would eate up a penny loafe, not knowing that he did it. Aubrey, Lives (Thomas Fuller). 2. Engaged in physical toil or manual labor as a means of livelihood; laboring: as, working people. Compare working - man.-3. Connected with the carrying on of some undertaking or busine : as, working expenses. working-beam (wer king-bēm), n. In mach. See beam, 2 (i).