bawd

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English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English bawde, baude, from Old French baud (bold, lively, jolly, gay). Doublet of bold.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

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.
    • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author’s Oeconomy and Happy Life among the Houyhnhnms. []”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. [] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: [] Benj[amin] 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.
  2. (obsolete, by extension) A person who facilitates an immoral act, especially one of a sexual nature.
  3. A lewd person.

Synonyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Adjective[edit]

bawd (comparative more bawd, superlative most bawd)

  1. (obsolete) Joyous; riotously gay.

Verb[edit]

bawd (third-person singular simple present bawds, present participle bawding, simple past and past participle bawded)

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

Anagrams[edit]

Welsh[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle Welsh mawd < Proto-Celtic *mā-to- < Proto-Indo-European *mē-. Compare Breton meud and Cornish meus.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

bawd m or f (plural bodiau)

  1. thumb
  2. big toe
  3. claw (of crab or lobster)
  4. (in slate quarrying) a flaw or crack in the slate
    Synonyms: crych, las, bachiad
  5. a bar projecting from rock face to which ropes are attached
  6. (of a railway or tramway) points, turnouts

Mutation[edit]

Welsh mutation
radical soft nasal aspirate
bawd fawd mawd unchanged
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.