Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Bawd

Bawd

,
Noun.
[OE.
baude
, OF.
balt
,
baut
,
baude
, bold, merry, perh. fr. OHG.
bald
bold; or fr. Celtic, cf. W.
baw
dirt. Cf.
Bold
,
Bawdry
.]
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.

Bawd

,
Verb.
I.
To procure women for lewd purposes.

Webster 1828 Edition


Bawd

BAWD

,
Noun.
[Gr.,a procurer or procuress.]
A procurer or procuress. A person who keeps a house of prostitution, and conducts criminal intrigues. [Usually applied to females.]

Definition 2024


bawd

bawd

English

Alternative forms

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 (comparative more bawd, superlative most bawd)

  1. (obsolete) Joyous; riotously gay.

Verb

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

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

Welsh

Etymology

Compare Breton meud.

Noun

bawd m (plural bodiau)

  1. thumb

Mutation

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.