bawdy-house

See also: bawdyhouse and bawdy house

English

Alternative forms

Noun

bawdy-house (plural bawdy-houses)

  1. (now chiefly historical, formal) A brothel; a house of prostitution.
    • 1981 August 15, Nancy Wechsler, Gayle Rubin, Pat Califia, “Sadomasochism: Fears, Facts, Fantasies”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 5, page 7:
      Right now in Canada, police are attacking the gay male s/m community by using the bawdy house laws, which were originally intended to regulate prostitution. They are now being redefined and applied to kinky gay sex.
    • 2012, Faramerz Dabhoiwala, The Origins of Sex, Penguin, published 2013, page 57:
      The spread of venereal disease slaughtered innocent wives and families by the thousands; the plague of bawdy houses destroyed the peace and livelihood of honest citizens.

Derived terms
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.