Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A young woman or girl.
  • noun A woman servant.
  • noun A promiscuous woman or a prostitute.
  • intransitive verb To consort with promiscuous women. Used of a man.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To consort with strumpets.
  • noun An obsolete form of winch for wince.
  • noun l. A child (of either sex).
  • noun A female child; a girl; a maid or damsel; a young woman in general.
  • noun Specifically
  • noun A girl or young woman of a humble order or class; especially, a maidservant; a working-girl.
  • noun A lewd or immodest woman; a mistress; a concubine; a strumpet.
  • noun A colored woman of any age; a negress or mulattress, especially one in service.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To frequent the company of wenches, or women of ill fame.
  • noun A young woman; a girl; a maiden.
  • noun A low, vicious young woman; a drab; a strumpet.
  • noun Archaic, U. S. A colored woman; a negress.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun archaic A young woman, especially a servant.
  • noun archaic A promiscuous woman.
  • verb intransitive To frequent prostitutes; to womanize.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun informal terms for a (young) woman
  • verb frequent prostitutes

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, short for wenchel, child, from Old English wencel.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English wenche, short for wenchel child, from Old English wencel; akin to Old High German wankōn ("to totter")

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word wench.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • We have all our weak side, as you well know. Tell me where Signor de Santillane is fallible. Is he fond of play? does he wench? On what lay are his snug little vices?

    - Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 9 ch. 1

    October 7, 2008