serail

plural serails

1. archaicA seraglio.

   He ſhall be made a chaſte and luſtleſſe Eunuch, And in my Sarell tend my Concubines:

   c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii

   2 more examples

   What longing lust would not bee alaid, to see three hundred women at his dispose and pleasure, as hath the Grand Turke in his Seraille?

   1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 42, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC

   London teemed with brothels and other pleasure domes such as Mrs Hayes's serail in Pall Mall, whose floor show included a Tahitian “Love Feast’ between twelve nymphs and twelve youths, and naked dancing.

   1990, Roy Porter, English Society in the 18th Century, Penguin, published 1991, page 264