1. A factory or workshop in which employees are forced to do very hard work, especially the manufacturing of clothing, for long hours with very low wages. Can be used facetiously to describe generally unpleasant or undesirable work conditions. The massive retailer recently committed to stop selling clothes produced in sweatshops. The charity aims to help find better employment opportunities for workers who hitherto had no option but to work in sweatshops to make ends meet. They've really turned the office into a sweatshop, making us work 70-hour weeks to get this project finished before the deadline.

2. Of, describing, or pertaining to such a factory or workshop. It's no secret that the clothing line has been using sweatshop labor for years to produce their goods at the lowest possible cost. The life expectancy of workers subjected to sweatshop conditions is unsurprisingly very low.