Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A woman who keeps a brothel; a madam.
- n. A woman prostitute.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A procurer or procuress; a person who keeps a house of prostitution, and conducts illicit intrigues: now usually applied only to women.
- To pander; act as procurer or procuress.
- To foul or dirty.
- n. A hare.
Wiktionary
- n. A person who keeps a house of prostitution, or procures women for a lewd purpose; a procurer or procuress;
- n. A lewd person.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A person who keeps a house of prostitution, or procures women for a lewd purpose; a procurer or procuress; a lewd person; -- usually applied to a woman.
- v. To procure women for lewd purposes.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a woman who engages in sexual intercourse for money
Etymologies
- Middle English, probably from Old French baud, merry, licentious, from Old Low German bald, bold, merry; see bhel-2 in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“Lussurioso undermines her first, more for her being a woman and a mother: "The name [of 'bawd']/is so in league with age that nowadays/It does eclipse three-quarters of a mother.”
“If you're a fan of vampires, but don't want to see high school kids staring longingly at each other before taking vows of chastity, then we highly recommend that you tune in for this adult-oriented "bawd" ville horror-fest.”
“(1. 3.147-149) and even undermines her motherly status, observing that bawds are often older women, and mothers are older women (usually): "The name [of 'bawd']/is so in league with age that nowadays/It does eclipse three-quarters of a mother.”
Draft: Women's Negotiations of Moral and Material Status in The Revenger's Tragedy
“bawd:" Cf. Letter 60, note 14 and Feb. 18, 1712-13.”
The Journal to Stella
“12 Forster reads, "devil's brood"; probably the second word is "bawd:" Cf. Letter 60, note 14 and Feb. 18, 1712-13.”
“New Haven was a feast of fat things—now the young wife in "La Ronde," now the bawd in "Pericles," now a play by Euripides, now by Strindberg, now the leading lady, now the ingénue.”
“But Shakespeare makes him live with himself and the consequences of his human weakness (not hypocrisy -- the Duke is hypocritical when he plays bawd to Mariana, but Angelo knows exactly what he's doing).”
“As Martin Lindstrom reminds us in "Brandwashed," marketers make sneaky appeals to our fears and desires, leverage our social connections to maximize peer pressure, dazzle us with tinfoil celebrity and lure us with sexual come-ons that would embarrass a bawd.”
“Best of all is the wonderful, pivotal scene in which Tilly Tremayne's well-judged, shrewd widow takes on Harriet Walter's glittering bawd at chess.”
“I took him off to a very high-priced place I knew in St John's Wood, swore the old bawd to secrecy, and stated the randy little pig's requirements.”
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