sweating-house
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 Interpr. 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. |