lewd

comparative lewder · superlative lewdest

1. Lascivious, sexually promiscuous, rude.

   Onstage he was known for ricochet riffs on politics, social issues and cultural matters both high and low; tales of drug and alcohol abuse; lewd commentaries on relations between the sexes; and lightning-like improvisations on anything an audience member might toss at him.

   2014 August 11, Dave Itzkoff, “Robin Williams, Oscar-Winning Comedian, Dies at 63 in Suspected Suicide”, in New York Times

   Synonyms: lubricious, lecherous

2. obsoleteLay; not clerical.

   So these great clerks their little wisdom show / To mock the lewd, as learn'd in this as they.

   1599, John Davies, Nosce Teipsum

3. obsoleteUneducated.

   My ſcoles are not for unthriftes untaught, / For frantick faitours half mad and half ſtraught; / But my learning is of another degree / To taunt theim like liddrons, lewde as thei bee.

   c. 1515–1516, published 1568, John Skelton, Againſt venemous tongues enpoyſoned with ſclaunder and falſe detractions &c.

4. obsoleteVulgar, common; typical of the lower orders.

   Too lewd to work, and ready for any kind of mischief.

   1829, Robert Southey, Sir Thomas More; or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society

   1 more example

   But the Jews, which believed not, […] took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, […] and assaulted the house of Jason.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 17:5

5. obsoleteBase, vile, reprehensible.

plural lewds

1. A sexually suggestive image, particularly one which does not involve full nudity.

   […] also put it, he learned “the difference between nudes and lewds."

   1996, Cigar Aficionado, page 309

   1 more example

   Nudes, lewds and smutty outhouse cards, although they can be bought in some of the rowdy joints, are a negligible percentage of the total, and are unobtainable in the chain stores, drugstores and travel stations which are the outlets for […]

   1944, The Saturday Evening Post, volume 217, page 25

present singular third person lewds · participle present lewding · participle past lewded · past lewded

1. ambitransitiveslangTo express lust; to behave in a lewd manner.

   Each one lusting and lewding themselves - fighting against the spirit of change.

   2019, Aldious Waite, Grape Juice Enlightenment: Immortal Mind, page 14

   2 more examples

   "Well then,” dropping her bathrobe, lewding her lips, “how 'bout some lovee?”

   2011, Cooper, The Queen's Assassin, page 189

   Now, the men could just have been watching the unusual APC running on the road, or just lewding at the women.

   2016, George Saoulidis, The Girl Who Twisted Fate's Arm

2. slangtransitivelifestyleTo sexualize a character, especially in a fan illustration.

present singular third person lewds · participle present lewding · participle past lewded · past lewded

1. alternativeslangAlternative form of lude (“take the drug quaalude”).

   Once lewded-out. I sampled the bourbon, then somebody suggested I take five more hits.

   1996, Exquisite Corpse - Issues 56-61, page 54

   2 more examples

   Babbs, after many days of glumming in his Purina Chow redoubt, strolls over, lewding out, “Hi, Je-e-e-ed!” to Kesey's three-year-old son.

   1968, Tom Wolfe, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →OCLC, page 320

   I was just lewding around, fucking furiously, drinking and doping and daring the devil.

   1973, Yardbird Reader - Volumes 1-3, page 186