Home › Words › S › sweateesweateesweatee means A subcontractor doing piece work in the tailoring trade.Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, sweatee ranks #30,691 of 42,802 for Qualifying.EtymologyFrom sweat + -ee.nounA subcontractor doing piece work in the tailoring trade.e.g.“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.” — 1894, New York (State) Bureau of Mediation and Arbitration, Annual Report (volumes 7-8, page 158)Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).