1. A house or building in which persons are sweated, esp. by way of curative treatment; spec. among the N. American Indians = SWEAT-HOUSE 1.
1664. Pepys, Diary, 16 Sept. The general cure for all diseases there [sc. Russia] is their sweating houses.
1791. J. Long, Voy. Indian Interpreter, 47. When the pipe has gone round, a sweating-house is prepared with six long poles fixed in the ground [etc.].
1837. W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville, I. 276. Making a rude sweating-house on the banks of the river.
2. In Spain, a hut into which sheep are crowded together so as to sweat, in order to soften the wool for shearing.
1832. Encycl. Amer., XI. 353. A narrow, long, low hut, called the sweating-house, where the sheep, being much crowded, perspire freely.
