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bawd. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
bawd, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
bawd in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English bawde, baude, from Old French baud (“bold, lively, jolly, gay”). Doublet of bold.
Pronunciation
Noun
bawd (plural bawds)
- (now archaic or historical) A person who keeps a house of prostitution, or procures women for prostitution; a procurer, a madame.
1717, Ned Ward, British Wonders:As Whores decay'd and past their Labours, / Turn Bawds, and so assist their Neighbours.
1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author’s Oeconomy and Happy Life among the Houyhnhnms. ”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. , volume II, London: Benj Motte, , →OCLC, part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms), page 301:[…] here were no Gibers, Cenſurers, Backbiters, Pick-pockets, Highwaymen, Houſebreakers, Attorneys, Bawds, Buffoons, Gameſters, Politicians, Wits, ſplenetick tedious Talkers, Controvertiſts, Raviſhers, Murderers, Robbers, Virtuoſo's; […]
2012, Faramerz Dabhoiwala, The Origins of Sex, Penguin, published 2013, page 76:Compared with their opponents, bawds and their associates increasingly had deeper pockets and greater confidence in manipulating the law.
- (obsolete, by extension) A person who facilitates an immoral act, especially one of a sexual nature.
1594 (first publication), Christopher Marlow[e], The Trovblesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edvvard the Second, King of England: , London: for Henry Bell, , published 1622, →OCLC, [Act I]:In ſaying this thou wrongſt me Gaueſton, / Iſt not enough that thou corrupts my Lord, / And art a Bawd to his affections, / But thou muſt call mine honour thus in queſtion?
- A lewd person.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Adjective
bawd (comparative more bawd, superlative most bawd)
- (obsolete) Joyous; riotously gay.
Verb
bawd (third-person singular simple present bawds, present participle bawding, simple past and past participle bawded)
- (archaic) To procure women for lewd purposes.
Anagrams
Welsh
Etymology
From Middle Welsh mawd < Proto-Celtic *mā-to- < Proto-Indo-European *mē-.
Compare Breton meud and Cornish meus.
Pronunciation
Noun
bawd m or f (plural bodiau)
- thumb
- big toe
- claw (of crab or lobster)
- (in slate quarrying) a flaw or crack in the slate
- Synonyms: crych, las, bachiad
- a bar projecting from rock face to which ropes are attached
- (of a railway or tramway) points, turnouts
Mutation