Meanings
plural bawdries · alternative baw'ry
- countableuncountableThe practice of procuring women for the gratification of lust.
- countableuncountableIllicit intercourse; fornication.
- countableuncountableObscenity; filthy, unchaste language.
[T]he Converſation (if it may be called ſo) was ſeldom ſuch as could entertain a Lady. It conſiſted chiefly of Hollowing, Singing, Relations of ſporting Adventures, B—d—y, and Abuſe of Women and of the Government.
1749, Henry Fielding, chapter IV, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume III, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book VII, page 261 more example
Let realism have its demonstration, comedy its criticism, or even bawdry its horselaugh at the expense of sexual infatuation, if it must; but to ask us to subject our souls to its ruinous glamour, to worship it, deify it, and imply that it alone makes our life worth living, is nothing but folly gone mad erotically—a thing compared to which Falstaff's unbeglamored drinking and drabbing is respectable and rightminded.
1901, [George] Bernard Shaw, “Three Plays for Puritans”, in Three Plays for Puritans: The Devil’s Disciple, Cæsar and Cleopatra, & Captain Brassbound’s Conversion, London: Grant Richards, […], →OCLC, page xxix
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Cite this entry
bawdry. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bawdry
“bawdry.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bawdry. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bawdry,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bawdry.
Source: bawdry on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.