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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

bawd.

One who keeps a brothel, or procures women for prostitution; a procurer or madam.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/bɔːd/UK/bɔd/US/bɑd/cot-caught-merger
  1. One who keeps a brothel, or procures women for prostitution; a procurer or madam.

    archaic · historical
  2. A person who facilitates an immoral act, especially one of a sexual nature.

    broadly · obsolete
  3. A lewd person.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *bʰóltosder. Proto-Germanic *balþaz Frankish *balþbor. Old French baudbor. Middle English bawde English bawd From Middle English bawde, baude, from Old French baud (“bold, lively, jolly, gay”). Doublet of bold. An association with Welsh bawddyn (“dirty fellow, scoundrel”), from baw (“dirt”), was suggested by the Rev. Henry Todd.

adj/bɔːd/UK/bɔd/US/bɑd/cot-caught-merger
  1. Joyous; riotously gay.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *bʰóltosder. Proto-Germanic *balþaz Frankish *balþbor. Old French baudbor. Middle English bawde English bawd From Middle English bawde, baude, from Old French baud (“bold, lively, jolly, gay”). Doublet of bold. An association with Welsh bawddyn (“dirty fellow, scoundrel”), from baw (“dirt”), was suggested by the Rev. Henry Todd.

verb/bɔːd/UK/bɔd/US/bɑd/cot-caught-merger
  1. To procure women for lewd purposes.

    archaic
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *bʰóltosder. Proto-Germanic *balþaz Frankish *balþbor. Old French baudbor. Middle English bawde English bawd From Middle English bawde, baude, from Old French baud (“bold, lively, jolly, gay”). Doublet of bold. An association with Welsh bawddyn (“dirty fellow, scoundrel”), from baw (“dirt”), was suggested by the Rev. Henry Todd.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.