Meanings
plural maquiladoras
- An assembly plant in Mexico owned by a company from the United States or another foreign country, using cheap local labour and imported components, and which then exports its products to the company's country of origin; also (by extension) similar factories in other countries.First known use 20th c.
If such maquiladora projects are to be the model for Haiti's economic future, they will simply create future generations of sweatshop labor at subsistence wages.
2013, Amy Wilentz, Farewell, Fred Voodoo, Simon & Schuster, page 1141 more example
The girls were invariably captured while running errands in the centre of town, or on their way to or from work in the hundreds of maquiladoras: sweatshop assembly plants that constitute the economy of Juárez, manufacturing (for rock-bottom wages) the goods that America and Europe deem essential to keep their supermarket shelves and car-concession outlets stocked.
2014 May 4, Ed Vulliamy, The Guardian
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
- Mexican Spanishmaquiladora
- Englishmaquiladora
Borrowed from Mexican Spanish maquiladora, from maquilar (“assemble”).
More words from Mexican Spanish
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Portuguese maquiladora
- maquiladoraan assembly plant in Mexico near the border with the United States
Cite this entry
maquiladora. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/maquiladora
“maquiladora.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/maquiladora. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “maquiladora,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/maquiladora.
Source: maquiladora on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.