whoredom arch.
(ˈhɔədəm)
Forms: see whore n.; also 4 -dame, 4–5 -dam, 4–7 -dome, 6 -doome, Sc. -dum.
[prob. a. ON. hórdómr = OFris. hôrdôm, MLG. hôrdom: see whore n. and -dom.]
1. The practice of playing the whore, or of intercourse with whores; illicit sexual indulgence in general; fornication, harlotry.
| c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 57 Ne beo þu nawiht monslaht, ne in hordom dei ne naht. 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 9857 He leuede muche in hordom, & huld vnder þe quene rosemounde. a 1300 Floriz & Bl. 654 Nis noȝt ȝore þat i ne com And fond hire wiþ hordom, Me to schame..In hire bedde on mi Tur. c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 417 Þis privey horedame makes myche harme. c 1450 St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 334 Þat he be getyn..In hordome. 1535 Coverdale Gen. xxxviii. 24 By whordome is she gotten with childe. 1561 Winȝet Wks. (S.T.S.) I. 128 The renunceing of the warld and plesouris of the body, nocht only fra vnlesum huirdum, bot fra mariage sumtyme to thame lesum. 1605 M. Sutcliffe Brief Exam. 102 They..set up bordell houses for maintenance of whoredom & baudry. 1784 Cowper Tiroc. 833 Now flush'd with drunk'ness, now with whoredom pale. |
b. pl. Acts of sexual immorality.
| c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 33 Ȝe nulleð forleten hordomes and ȝifernesse and druncnesse. 1539 Bible (Great) 2 Kings ix. 22 Y⊇ whordomes of thy mother Iezabel. 1575–85 Sandys Serm. xiv. 249 Otherwise they are not mariages, but whoredomes. 1611 Bible Hosea i. 2 A wife of whoredomes, and children of whoredomes. 1716 Hearne Collect. (O.H.S.) V. 234 Notwithstanding his Whoredoms. 1862 Hook Lives Abps. II. ii. 114 He will never be converted from his whoredoms and ruinous follies. |
2. fig.; esp. in biblical and religious use, applied to idolatry or other form of unfaithfulness to the true God.
| c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. I. 58 Kynrede of hordom sekiþ siche signes. 1535 Coverdale Jer. iii. 2 Thorow thy whordome and shamefull blasphemies, is the londe defyled. ― Hosea i. 2 The londe hath committed greate whordome agaynst the Lorde. 1593 J. Napier Rev. To Rdr. A 6, Their seuen hilled citie Rome, painted out..by Saint Iohn, as the mother of all spirituall whoredome. 1742 Young Nt. Th. viii. 549 Think you there's but one whoredom? whoredom, all, But when our reason licenses delight. 1860 Pusey Min. Proph. 13 Whoredom is to have many other objects of sinful love. |
Hence † ˈwhoredomer (hurdomare) Sc. Obs., one who practises whoredom, a fornicator.
| 1456 Sir G. Haye Bk. Knthd. Wks. (S.T.S.) II. 40 Na common leare, na commone viciouse hurdomare. |