N-COUNT (英国17至19世纪的)济贫院,劳动救济所 In Britain, in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, a workhouse was a place where very poor people could live and do unpleasant jobs in return for food. People use the workhouse to refer to these places in general. (英国17至19世纪的)济贫院,劳动救济所
...a struggling Shropshire family which lived in fear of the workhouse.