[WORK sb.] People employed in manual or industrial labor for a wage; workmen and (or) workwomen.
1708. Caldwell Papers (Maitland Club), I. 216. You cannot imagine what a parcel of cheating brutes the work people here are.
1818. Min. Evid. Committee Ribbon Weavers, 152. How many people do they employ, weavers, warpers, winders and work people, of every description?
1848. Mill, Pol. Econ., I. iv. § 1 (1865), I. 69. Each capitalist has money, which he pays to his workpeople, and so enables them to supply themselves.
1883. W. D. Curzon, Manuf. Industries Worcs., 36. Mechanical skill on the part of the workpeople not being necessary—the machines in fact doing the most part of the work.
