bawd
Pronunciation
  • (British) IPA: /bɔːd/
  • (America) enPR: bôd, IPA: /bɔd/
Noun

bawd (plural bawds)

  1. (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.
    • 2012, Faramerz Dabhoiwala, The Origins of Sex, Penguin 2013, p. 76:
      Compared with their opponents, bawds and their associates increasingly had deeper pockets and greater confidence in manipulating the law.
  2. A lewd person.
Adjective

bawd

  1. (obsolete) Joyous; riotously gay.
Verb

bawd (bawds, present participle bawding; past and past participle bawded)

  1. (archaic) To procure women for lewd purposes.



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