• Sweatee

    Origin

    en + -sweat + ee

    Full definition of sweatee

    Noun

    sweatee

    (plural sweatees)
    1. (historical) A subcontractor doing piece work in the tailoring trade.
      • 1894, New York (State) Bureau of Mediation and Arbitration, Annual Report (volumes 7-8, page 158)If the piecework system had not existed there never would have been any sweatees. The men who are sweaters, I am sorry to say, are men who formerly belonged to our union.
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