bawd

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“The impudence of a bawd is modesty compared with that of a convert,” said George Savile, the first marquess of Halifax.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 8, 2026

Words such as scold, shrew, termagent, witch, harlot, bawd, and tramp were all at one point in their histories terms for men; furthermore, the terms were usually neutral and sometimes even adulatory.

From Salon • May 11, 2013

Best of all is the wonderful, pivotal scene in which Tilly Tremayne's well-judged, shrewd widow takes on Harriet Walter's glittering bawd at chess.

From The Guardian • May 1, 2010

As the hero, Albert Finney makes Olde England jolly indeed, and Hugh Griffith richly earns bed and bawd in a rakehell portrayal of Squire Western.

From Time Magazine Archive

Yea mary may it; for Beauty may transforme Honesty, from what she was into a bawd: Then Honesty can transforme Beauty: This was sometimes a Paradox, But now the time giues it scope.

From The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke The First ('Bad') Quarto by Shakespeare, William